Poppe, S., Lehmann, A., Scholte, A. et al. (4 more authors) (2015) Zeolite-like liquid crystals. Nat Communications, 6. 8637.
Abstract
Zeolites represent inorganic solid-state materials with porous structures of fascinating complexity. Recently, significant progress was made by reticular synthesis of related organic solid-state materials, such as metal-organic or covalent organic frameworks. Herein we go a step further and report the first example of a fluid honeycomb mimicking a zeolitic framework. In this unique self-assembled liquid crystalline structure, transverse-lying π-conjugated rod-like molecules form pentagonal channels, encircling larger octagonal channels, a structural motif also found in some zeolites. Additional bundles of coaxial molecules penetrate the centres of the larger channels, unreachable by chains attached to the honeycomb framework. This creates a unique fluid hybrid structure combining positive and negative anisotropies, providing the potential for tuning the directionality of anisotropic optical, electrical and magnetic properties. This work also demonstrates a new approach to complex soft-matter self-assembly, by using frustration between space filling and the entropic penalty of chain extension.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © 2015 Macmillan Publishers Limited. All rights reserved. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in the credit line; if the material is not included under the Creative Commons license, users will need to obtain permission from the license holder to reproduce the material. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of Sheffield |
Academic Units: | The University of Sheffield > Faculty of Engineering (Sheffield) > Department of Materials Science and Engineering (Sheffield) |
Funding Information: | Funder Grant number LEVERHULME TRUST (THE) RPG-2012-804 ENGINEERING AND PHYSICAL SCIENCE RESEARCH COUNCIL (EPSRC) EP/K034308/1 |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Sheffield |
Date Deposited: | 13 Apr 2016 08:08 |
Last Modified: | 23 Jun 2023 22:02 |
Published Version: | http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/ncomms9637 |
Status: | Published |
Publisher: | Nature Publishing Group: Nature Communications |
Refereed: | Yes |
Identification Number: | 10.1038/ncomms9637 |
Related URLs: | |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:97621 |