We report on the phase behaviour of a wedge-shaped mesogen, which can exist in two different states at room temperature, a stable columnar and a metastable cubic gyroid phase. The latter reveals exceptional stability and remarkable water sorption capacity accounted for by the locally-ordered peripheral alkyl chains.

In the present paper, we describe an experimental setup combining micro- and nano-focus X-ray scattering and chip calorimetry (nanocalorimetry), which is designed for in-situ measurements on nanogram-size samples. Such combination of techniques capable to simultaneously probe the micro-structural and thermodynamic properties of materials can be useful for studies of materials having a complex phase behavior or prone to form metastable states. The setup is made compatible with micro- and nano-focus synchrotron beamlines.