Liquid crystals cone-shaped molecules

This type of stacking of cone-shape molecules has already been proposed for the description of the molecular organisation in the mesophase of some bowlic liquid crystals based on tungsten-oxo calix[4]arenes, 80, 81 [142]. 

Lyotropic liquid crystals differ from thermotropic liquid crystals. They are formed by mesogens that are not the molecules themselves but their hydrates or solvates as well as by associates of hydrated or solvated molecules. In presence of water or a mixture of water and an organic solvent as the most important solvents for drug molecules, the degree of hydration or solvation depends on the amphiphilic properties of a drug molecule. Hydration—and solvation—of the mostly rod-shaped molecule results in different geometries such as cone and cylinder (Fig. 3). ... 

Other liquid crystal phases composed of molecules having unusual molecular shapes are also known. Some compounds form a cone or bowl shape. These materials are often referred to as bowlic, and some typical examples are hexasubstituted tribenzocyclonones and aza-crowns (17), molecules of which stack on top of each other to form an ordered column which may have anomalous electrical conductivity. When a disklike molecule is divided by a rod-shaped spacer, the molecule (18) is referred to as a phasmid. It exhibits phases bearing some resemblance to columnar discotics. 

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