Natalia Tchebotareva

Discotic liquid crystalline hexabenzocoronenes carrying chiral and racemic branched alkyl chains: supramolecular engineering and improved synthetic methods

Abstract In this paper we present the synthesis and characterization of three different thermotropic liquid crystalline derivatives of hexabenzocoronene (HBC), substituted at the periphery by six chiral or racemic branched (3,7-dimethyloctanyl) chains, namely the chiral 5a, racemic 5b, and mono-bromo functionalized 18 carrying five alkyl chains. Improved methods for synthesis of HBC precursors, largely relying on transition-metal catalyzed coupling reactions, are also described. Solubility and processability are increased while the thermal K→DH transitions are shifted to lower temperatures, relative to analogous HBCs carrying n-alkyl chains. In case of substitution with a chiral branched alkyl chain, 5a, strong signals have been recorded by means of circular dichroism spectroscopy. All new compounds were characterized by 1H, 13C NMR, and UV–Vis spectroscopy, and FD-MS. Preliminary mesophase characterization is carried out by differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) and polarized light microscopy. In the course of the DSC experiments, optically pure and racemic HBC derivatives were compared.

Langmuir and Langmuir-Blodgett films of amphiphilic hexa-peri-hexabenzocoronene: new phase transitions and electronic properties controlled by pressure.

We present the synthesis as well as the structural and electronic properties of an amphiphilic derivative of hexaalkylhexa-peri-hexabenzocoronene (HBC), which contains one alkyl substituent that is terminated with a carboxylic acid group. The molecules form well-defined Langmuir films when spread from a solution at the air-water interface. Grazing-incidence X-ray diffraction (GIXD) and X-ray reflectivity studies of the Langmuir monolayer reveal two crystallographic phases at room temperature which depend on the surface pressure applied to the film. Scattering from very well-ordered (zeta = 200-400 A) pi-stacked lamellae of HBC molecules tilted approximately 45 degrees relative to the surface normal is observed in the low-pressure phase. In this phase, the HBC molecules pack in a rectangular two-dimensional unit cell with a = 22.95 A and b = 4.94 A. In the high-pressure phase, coherence from the pi stack is lost. This is a consequence of stress induced by the crystallization of the substituent alkyl chains into a hexagonal lattice, which has a trimerized superstructure in one direction: a = 3 x b = 15.78 A, b = 5.26 A, gamma = 120 degrees, A = 71.9 A2 = 3 x 23.9 A2. Thin monolayer films can be transferred to solid supports by the Langmuir-Blodgett (LB) technique. Atomic force microscopy (AFM) with atomic resolution reveals the crystalline packing of alkyl chains in the high-pressure phase. Kelvin force microscopy (KFM) shows a clear potential difference between the high- and low-pressure phases. This is discussed in terms of orbital delocalization (band formation) in the highly coherent low-pressure phase, which is in contrast to the localized molecular orbitals present in the high-pressure phase. The highly coherent pi stack is expected to sustain a very high charge-carrier mobility.