Self liquid crystal

Liquid crystal polyesters are made by a different route. Because they are phenoHc esters, they cannot be made by direct ester exchange between a diphenol and a lower dialkyl ester due to unfavorable reactivities. The usual method is the so-called reverse ester exchange or acidolysis reaction (96) where the phenoHc hydroxyl groups are acylated with a lower aHphatic acid anhydride, eg, acetic or propionic anhydride, and the acetate or propionate ester is heated with an aromatic dicarboxyHc acid, sometimes in the presence of a catalyst. The phenoHc polyester forms readily as the volatile lower acid distills from the reaction mixture. Many Hquid crystal polymers are derived formally from hydroxyacids (97,98) and thein acetates readily undergo self-condensation in the melt, stoichiometric balance being automatically obtained. 

The liquid crystal polymers consist of rod-like molecules which, during shear, tend to orient in the direction of shear. Because of the molecular order the molecules flow past each other with comparative ease and the melts have a low viscosity. When the melt is cooled the molecules retain their orientation, giving self-reinforcing materials that are extremely strong in the direction of orientation. 

Highly aromatic thermoplastic polyesters first beeame available in the 1960s but the original materials were somewhat difficult to process. These were followed in the 1970s by somewhat more processable materials, commonly referred to as polyarylates. More recently there has been considerable activity in liquid crystal polyesters, which are in interest as self-reinforeing heat-resisting engineering thermoplastics. 

In Chapter 3 it was pointed out that certain rod-like polymers showed many of the attributes of liquid crystals in the melt. In particular, these molecules were oriented in shear to such an extent that interchain entanglement was small and the melts had a low viscosity. On cooling of the melt these rod-like molecules remained oriented, effectively self-reinforcing the polymer in the direction of flow. The essential differences in the properties of liquid crystal polymers... 

Self-Assembled Layers, Langmuir-Blodgett Layers, and Liquid Crystals... 

Furukawa N, Sato S (1999) New Aspects of Hypervalent Organosulfur Compounds. 205 89-129 Gabriel J-C P, Davidson P (2003) Mineral Liquid Crystals from Self-Assembly of Anisotropic Nanosystems. 226 119-172... 

Another direction in liquid crystal research is the fabrication of new molecules that mimic natural materials. The molecule shown here forms two different liquid crystals because of the cylindrical properties of the color-shaded portions of the molecule. These two trios are tethered together by long hydrocarbon chains. In addition to forming liquid crystals, this molecule self-assembles into organized larger units, as do proteins and DNA. The techniques used to synthesize this particular molecule can be adapted to incorporate... 

Tschierske, C. (1998) Non-conventional liquid crystals - the importance of micro-segregation for self-organisation. Journal of Materials Chemistry, 8,1485-1508. 

It is the author s view that a chapter such as this needs some sort of context and needs to be self-contained. From this point of view, it will begin with a general introduction to liquid crystals themselves and will then introduce hydrogen-bonded liquid crystals in order to provide some context. The introduction to liquid crystals will not be referenced or illustrated heavily, so those readers requiring more information are directed to reference [1]. 

Kato T, Mizoshita N, Moriyama M, Kitamura T (2005) Gelation of Liquid Crystals with Self-Assembled Fibers. 256 219-236 Kaul M, see Pilch DS (2005) 253 179-204... 

Synthesis of the first mesoionic nematic and smectic A liquid crystals derived from sydnones has been described and their self-organization into liquid crystal phases has been studied by optical, calorimetric, and powder X-ray diffraction methods <2005CC1552>. 

So far we have considered the formation of tubules in systems of fixed molecular chirality. It is also possible that tubules might form out of membranes that undergo a chiral symmetry-breaking transition, in which they spontaneously break reflection symmetry and select a handedness, even if they are composed of achiral molecules. This symmetry breaking has been seen in bent-core liquid crystals which spontaneously form a liquid conglomerate composed of macroscopic chiral domains of either handedness.194 This topic is extensively discussed in Walba s chapter elsewhere in this volume. Some indications of this effect have also been seen in experiments on self-assembled aggregates.195,196... 

Chiral Lyotropic Discotic Liquid Crystals and Self-Assembly of Chiral Discotics in Dilute Solution... 

It was quickly recognized that chirality would play an important role in discotic liquid crystals, not only for the possibility of creating cholesteric and ferroelectric liquid crystals but also as a tool for studying the self-assembly of these molecules as a whole, both in solution and in the solid state. However, initial studies revealed that expression of chirality in discotic liquid crystals was not as straightforward as for liquid crystals derived from calamitic molecules. More recently, with the increase in interest in self-assembly and molecular recognition, considerably more attention has been directed to the study of chiral discotics and their assemblies in solution. The objective of this chapter is... 

CHIRAL LYOTROPIC DISCOTIC LIQUID CRYSTALS AND SELF-ASSEMBLY OF CHIRAL DISCOTICS IN DILUTE SOLUTION... 

---