The Special “Morse Code” between Solvent Polarity and Morphology Flexibility in a POSS–Dendrimer Supramolecular System

An amazing phenomenon of the relative magnitude of modulus of two liquid‐crystal (LC) gels is found inverted under/above their phase transition temperature TLC‐iso, which is further proved to be caused by their diverse morphology flexibility. By testing the polarity of two LCs, gelator POSS‐G1‐Boc (...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Chemistry : a European journal 2019-09, Vol.25 (52), p.12098-12104
Main Authors: Shan, Tianyu, Gao, Liang, Tong, Xiaoqian, Du, Qinqing, An, Zhihang, He, Huiwen, Lin, Jiaping, Chen, Si, Wang, Xu
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Chemistry
Flexibility
Flexible structures
Gels
Molecular dynamics
molecular modeling
Morphology
Morse code
nanostructures
Phase transitions
Polarity
Polyhedral oligomeric silsesquioxane
self-assembly
solvent effects
Solvents
supramolecular chemistry
Transition temperature
Transition temperatures
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:An amazing phenomenon of the relative magnitude of modulus of two liquid‐crystal (LC) gels is found inverted under/above their phase transition temperature TLC‐iso, which is further proved to be caused by their diverse morphology flexibility. By testing the polarity of two LCs, gelator POSS‐G1‐Boc (POSS=polyhedral oligomeric silsesquioxane) was discovered to self‐assemble into more flexible structures in a relatively low polar LC, whereas more rigid ones are formed in higher polar LC. Hence, a fitting function to connect morphology flexibility with solvent polarity was established, which can even be generalized to a number of common solvents. Experimental observations and coarse‐grained molecular dynamics simulations revealed that solvent polarity mirrors a “Morse code”, with each “code” corresponding to a specific morphology flexibility. Decoding morphology: With the help of the “Decoding software 2019”, the special “Morse code” of solvent polarity can be translated into morphology flexibility of liquid‐crystal (LC) gels (see figure).
ISSN:0947-6539
1521-3765
DOI:10.1002/chem.201901422