Electric Field-Assisted Alignment of Self-Assembled Fibers Composed of Hydrogen-Bonded Molecules Having Laterally Fluorinated Mesogens

Abstract

Aligned fibrous aggregates of amide compounds having laterally fluorinated aromatic mesogens have been successfully obtained by the application of the alternating current electric field (1.0 V/microm, 1 kHz) in dodecylbenzene. In contrast, randomly entangled fibers are formed in the solvent without electric fields. For the analogous compounds without fluorine substituent, no aligned fibrous aggregates have been obtained under the electric fields. The electric field alignment of the fibers should be assisted by the fluorinated rod-shaped mesogens that exhibit negative dielectric anisotropy.

Blue and Green Phosphorescent Liquid‐Crystalline Iridium Complexes with High Hole Mobility

“…Twoa cac derivatives (a and b)a re based on the rod-shapedd ifluorobiphenylcyclohexyl mesogen (Scheme 1). [21,22] Photophysical properties of the complexes in solution are identical to the parent complexes withoutm esogenic units, [26] and limited (less than 20 nm) redshifted emissions were observed in neatf ilms. The complexes display Smectic A( SmA) liquid-crystalline phase.…”

Patterning of Soft Matter across Multiple Length Scales

“…[ 2,7,8 ] While the order within an assembly (nanometer scale) is extremely high, when dispersed, most supramolecular materials form macroscopically isotropic assemblies. [11][12][13][14] So far, different strategies toward macroscopic alignment of polymeric and supramolecular materials have been developed, including photolithography, [ 15,16 ] soft lithography, [ 3,16 ] electrospinning, [17][18][19] electric [20][21][22][23] and magnetic [ 24,25 ] fi eld alignment, as well as shear fl ow alignment. Examples where such control is highly benefi cial or even crucial for device performance are in optoelectronic devices [8][9][10] and in tissue engineering, where a macroscopically organized polymer scaffold is necessary for the growth of highly aligned tissue, such as muscle fi bers and neural tissue.…”

Aromatic–Aromatic Interactions Enhance Interfiber Contacts for Enzymatic Formation of a Spontaneously Aligned Supramolecular Hydrogel

“…While it is relatively easy and successful in generating anisotropic materials from inorganic solids, 2a,b the introduction of anisotropy to synthetic soft organic materials, 3a,b,c,d particularly hydrogels, 4a,b,c remains less developed and a considerable challenge despite that biological anisotropic soft materials with substantial complexity prevails in living organisms. 5 Although several approaches have shown effectiveness for inducing anisotropy in gels, including the use of electrical field, 6 the inclusion of liquid crystals, 3c,d and the utilization of mechanical stretching 7a,b,c or shear force from flow, 4a each process still has its limitation for creating anisotropy in hydrogels because hydrogels contain a large amount of water that usually conducts electricity, excludes common liquid crystals, and favors relaxation to isotropic state. Thus, better approaches are needed for spontaneously generating inherently anisotropic hydrogels.…”