The pathway and kinetics of hierarchical assembly of ionic oligomers into a lyotropic columnar phase

Abstract

In situ investigations on the formation of a lyotropic liquid crystal phase through supramolecular assembly in solution suggest a multi-step pathway.

Crystalline Order Propagates Across Thick Layers of Water in Solutions of Supramolecular Nanotubes

“…The distinctive stacking fashion is similar to thread-like assembly model of chromonics [13] in terms of the overlap between molecular parts and being driven by hydrogen bonds. Examining the growth process further, it was found [33] that the hexagonal cell parameter a increases steadily during the first several hours of nanotube formation, simultaneously with increasing "crystallinity" -see Figure 6b and c. This suggests that crystallization starts in areas of highest concentration and gradually spreads to more dilute regions, while at the same time solution concentration equalizes across the sample volume, increasing and equalizing the distance between existing tubes.…”

“…b Time evolution of the lattice parameter a for different concentrations (time since dissolution). c Evolution of "degree of crystallinity" estimated by the ratio between the area of the Bragg peaks and the total area under the SAXS curve (adapted from [33]).…”