This work illustrates how minor structural perturbations produced by methylation of 4'-(dodecyloxy)-4-cyanobiphenyl leads to enthalpy-entropy compensation for their melting processes, a trend which can be analyzed within the frame of a simple intermolecular cohesive model. The transformation of the melting thermodynamic parameters collected at variable temperatures into cohesive free-energy densities expressed at a common reference temperature results in a novel linear correlation, from which melting temperatures can be simply predicted from molecular volumes.

This work illustrates how enthalpy and entropy changes responsible for successive phase transitions of cyanobiphenyl-based liquid crystals can be combined to give cohesive free energy densities. These new parameters are able to rationalize and quantify the demixing of the melting and clearing processes that occur in thermotropic liquid crystals. Minor structural variations at the molecular level can be understood as pressure increments that alter either the melting or clearing temperatures in a predictable way. This assessment of microsegregation operating in amphiphilic molecules paves the way for the chemical programming of the domain of existence of liquid-crystalline phases.

As for any thermotropic liquid crystals (often referred to as mesogens), those containing transition metals (metallomesogens), and more specifically lanthanides (lanthanidomesogens) would benefit from rational correlations between the microscopic variations introduced by chemists in their molecular structures and some planned macroscopic properties such as temperature domain of existence, viscosity and supramolecular organization. The novel concept of cohesive free energy density (CFED) allows the building of pseudo-phase boundaries, which connect chemical perturbations, usually measured with the help of arbitrary structural parameters, into quantitative pressure increments relevant to those found in pressure-temperature phase diagrams. With the help of this novel toolkit, cyanobiphenyl-based dendrimeric tridentate ligands have been used as a proofof-concept for exploring the consequences of (i) the successive methylation of polyaromatic termini, (ii) the complexation to luminescent europium carriers and (iii) the statistical doping with structural defects on the thermodynamic parameters which control the phase transitions.

Enthalpy/entropy compensation is a general issue of intermolecular binding processes when the interaction between the partners can be roughly modelled with a single harmonic potential. Whereas linear H/S correlations are wished for by experimentalists, and often graphically justified, no inflexible law of thermodynamics supports the latter statement. On the contrary, the non-directional Ford's approach suggests logarithmic H/S relationships, which can be linearized only over narrow enthalpy/entropy ranges. Predictions covering larger domains require mathematical mapping obeying specific boundary conditions which are not compatible with linear plots. The analysis of solvent-free melting processes operating in six different classes of organic and inorganic materials shows that reciprocal Hill plots are acceptable functions for correlating melting enthalpies and entropies. The combination of H/S compensation with the observed linear dependence of the cohesive free energy densities with respect to the melting temperature eventually provides an unprecedented interdependence between melting temperatures and molar volumes. This procedure is exploited for the prediction of melting temperatures in substituted cyanobiphenyls

The polyaromatic terdentate ligand 6-(azaindol-1-yl)-2,2′-bipyridine (L7) combines one 5-membered chelate ring with a fused 6-membered chelate ring. It is designed to provide complexation properties intermediate between 2,2′;6′,2″-terpyridine (L1) (two fused 5-membered chelate rings) and 2,6-bis(azaindol-1-yl)pyridine (L6) (two fused 6-membered chelate rings). In polar organic solvents, L7 displays remarkable affinities for the successive fixation of two small univalent cations M = H+ or Li+, leading to stable [M(m)(L7)]m+ (m = 1–2) complexes. Upon reaction with M = Mg2+ or Zn2+ cations, the large positive charge densities borne by the metals result in the successive cooperative complexation of two ligands to give [M(L7)n]n+ (n = 1–2). For small Sc3+, unavoidable traces of water favor the formation of the protonated ligand at millimolar concentrations in acetonitrile, but the use of larger Y3+ cations leads to [Y(L7)n]n+ (n = 1, 2), for which stability constants of log(β(1,1)(Y,L7)) = 2.9(5) and log(β(1,2)(Y,L7)) = 5.3(4) are estimated. The complexation behaviors are supported by speciations in solution, thermodynamic analyses, and solution and solid-state structures.