Electric-field-responsive handle for large-area orientation of discotic liquid-crystalline molecules in millimeter-thick films

Article abstract of DOI:10.1002/anie.201102472

Current events: An electric-field-responsive handle (see picture) was developed that enables large-area and millimeter-thick unidirectional orientation of columnarly assembled π-conjugated liquid-crystalline molecules. The handles in the columns are hydrogen-bonded and align along the direction of an applied electric field.

Full text of DOI:10.1002/anie.201102472

DOI: 10.1002/anie.201102472
Liquid Crystals
Electric-Field-Responsive Handle for Large-Area Orientation of
Discotic Liquid-Crystalline Molecules in Millimeter-Thick Films**
Daigo Miyajima, Fumito Araoka, Hideo Takezoe,* Jungeun Kim, Kenichi Kato, Masaki Takata,
and Takuzo Aida*
As well-known for liquid-crystalline (LC) displays[1] a variety
of rodlike LC molecules that assemble into nematic and
smectic phases align unidirectionally under the influence of
an electric field (E field). In these cases, the direction of such
oriented LC molecules can be controlled as desired. Hence, if
semiconducting discotic LC molecules that assemble colum-
narly[2] can be aligned likewise by an E field, superiorly
conducting electronic devices[3] with suitably oriented path-
ways for carrier transport[4] can be developed. However,
discotic LC molecules[5,6] have not been reported to align
under an E field. This is mainly because such LC materials
with large discotic cores are poorly fluidic because of a 2D
structural order of strongly p-stacked 1D columnar compo-
nents. Therefore, to develop a strategy for designing discotic
LC molecules that can be aligned by an E field is a grand
challenge. Here, we report that aromatic amides[5a,c] with
branched paraffinic tails, when properly spaced from meso-
genic discotic cores, serve as an E-field-responsive handle that
enables large-area unidirectional orientation of columnarly
assembled LC molecules with extended p-conjugated cores.
Also important in the view of device fabrication is that the
resulting macroscopic orientation can be maintained even
after the E field is switched off.
10 aromatic amide groups, forms a columnar LC assembly.[5c]
Although the core unit of 1COR is very large, the LC columns
can be oriented in such a way that their columnar axes are
parallel to the direction of an applied E field (Figure 2a).[5c]
As corannulene has a dipole because of its nonplanarity,[7] we
assumed that the large dipole of its columnar assembly
accounts for the observed E-field-induced orientation. To
support this hypothesis, we newly synthesized 2TP (Figure 1), a
planar analogue of 1COR having a triphenylene unit as core
part instead of a nonplanar corannulene. Just as other
triphenylene derivatives so far reported, this LC molecule
columnarly assembled with hexagonal geometry (Colh) in a
rather wide temperature range including room temperature
[5c]
(Figure 1). Furthermore, as in the case of 1COR
,
the
columnar structure is likely stabilized by a hydrogen-bonding
interaction of the amide groups along the column (see
Figure S22 in the Supporting Information). To investigate if
2TP at its LC mesophase can be aligned by an E field, an
isotropic melt of 2TP was introduced into a sandwich-type
glass cell composed of patterned ITO electrodes with a gap of
5 mm. A rectangular-shaped 1.0 Hz E field of alternating
current (25 VppmmÀ1) was applied to this sample which was
heated at its LC mesophase temperature. Polarizing optical
microscopy (POM) of 2TP under crossed polarizers showed a
dark field of a part, operating at an E field, of the sample,
which was sandwiched by two ITO electrodes, whereas the
other non-operating part, located between an ITO electrode
and a glass, remained birefringent (Figure 2b). When this
sample was heated to allow a Colh-to-Iso phase transition and
then cooled without E field to the LC mesophase temperature
range, a birefringent texture developed over the entire view of
the POM image. However, when the E field was again applied
to this sample, the observed birefringence disappeared.
Because the dark field, after rotation of the sample, did not
display any contrast in the POM images, this observation
indicates that the LC columns of 2TP, located under the
applied E field, uniformly align homeotropically relative to
the substrate. This homeotropic columnar orientation, once
developed entirely over the LC sample by an E field, was
maintained even after the E field was switched off. The
resultant POM image remained dark as long as the oriented
sample was kept in the LC mesophase temperature range.
These observations exclude the possibility of our initial
hypothesis that the nonplanar corannulene core plays a
crucial role in the observed E-field responsiveness of the
samples. However, these observations beneficially suggest
that the amide-appended side-chain motif, commonly incor-
porated into 1COR and 2TP, might serve as an E-field-
Recently, we reported that a corannulene derivative
(1COR; Figure 1), appended at its bowl-shaped core with
[*] D. Miyajima, Prof. Dr. T. Aida
Department of Chemistry and Biotechnology
School of Engineering, The University of Tokyo
7-3-1 Hongo, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo 113-8656 (Japan)
E-mail: aida@macro.t.u-tokyo.ac.jp
Dr. F. Araoka, Prof. Dr. H. Takezoe
Department of Organic and Polymeric Materials
Tokyo Institute of Technology
2-12-1 O-okayama, Meguro-ku, Tokyo 152-8552 (Japan)
E-mail: takezoe.h.aa@m.titech.ac.jp
Dr. J. Kim
Japan Synchrotron Radiation Research Institute (JASRI)
1-1-1 Kouto, Sayo-cho, Sayo-gun, Hyogo 679-5148 (Japan)
Dr. K. Kato, Prof. Dr. M. Takata
RIKEN SPring-8 Center
1-1-1 Kouto, Sayo-cho, Sayo-gun, Hyogo 679-5148 (Japan)
[**] The synchrotron radiation experiments were performed at BL02B2
and BL44B2 in Spring-8 under the Budding Researchers Support
Programs and the Priority Nanotechnology Support Program
administrated by the JASRI (Proposal Nos. 2008B1777, 2009A1651,
and 2009A1699) and with the approval of RIKEN (Proposal No.
20090021). D.M. thanks the JSPS Research Fellowship for young
scientists.
Supporting information for this article is available on the WWW
under http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/anie.201102472.
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Figure 1. Structures and phase diagrams of LC compounds derived form corannulene (1COR), triphenylene (2TP), hexaphenylbenzene (3HPB),
tetrathiafluvalene (4aTTF, 4bTTF, and 4cTTF), oligothiophene (5aOT, 5bOT, and 5cOT), and phthalonitrile (6aPN and 6bPN). Phase-transition
temperatures are in 8C. Symbols Cr, Colh, Colr, Cub, and Iso denote crystalline, hexagonal columnar, rectangular columnar, cubic, and isotropic
phases, respectively. Values in parentheses below the symbol Col are intercolumnar distances in nm, and the subscripted values are the observed
temperatures in 8C. Compounds with blue or green-colored symbols are responsive to the E field, but only compounds with blue-colored symbols
maintain the resultant macroscopic columnar orientation even after the E field is switched off. Compounds with red-colored symbols are not
responsive to the E field.
responsive handle for large-area orientation of columnarly
assembled discotic LC molecules.
To confirm that the above-mentioned strategy is indeed
universal, we synthesized nine LC compounds (Figure 1) in
addition to 2TP. Compound 3HPB bears a hexaphenylbenzene
(HPB) core,[8] whereas 4aTTF and 5bOT carry tetrathiafluva-
lene (TTF) and oligothiophene (OT), respectively, which are
representative motifs for p-type organic semiconductors.[9]
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dashed line, are quite ordinary and the discotic core serves as
a mesogen to drive the hexagonal columnar assembly. On the
other hand, in the columnar assembly of LC compounds listed
below the dashed line in Figure 1, roughly three to four
molecules assemble conically to give a supramolecular
mesogenic core.[10] We also found that compounds 5bOT and
6aPN display a micellar cubic (Cub) mesophase above the
temperature range for the columnar mesophase.
As a proof of concept, we investigated the assembly of the
newly obtained LC compounds under conditions analogous to
those for 2TP, by applying a rectangular-shaped 1.0 Hz E field
(10–50 VppmmÀ1) of alternating current in the sandwich-type
glass cell composed of patterned ITO electrodes with a gap of
5 mm. To our surprise, regardless of the structures of core and
branched paraffinic tails, assembly and lattice dimensions,
seven discotic LC compounds 3HPB, 4aTTF–4cTTF, 5aOT, 5cOT
,
and 6bPN, as well as 2TP, responded to the applied E field. As
shown in Figure 2c–g,i, and k, POM images of these
compounds at their LC mesophase displayed site-selectively
a dark field in a part, operating at an E field, of the sample,
which is sandwiched by the ITO electrodes. The largest
attainable film thickness with unidirectional columnar ori-
entation, as confirmed by POM, appeared to reach the
millimeter range (Figure 3). For facilitating the POM obser-
vation, we chose 6bPN with a small optical interference and
prepared its film samples with thickness values of 25, 50, 75,
100, 250, and 500 mm. Then, each LC film was heated, and the
resulting isotropic melt was allowed to cool to the LC
mesophase temperature in an applied E field. As shown in
Figure 3a–f, all LC films displayed a dark field in POM, for
which a higher voltage was necessary to make the thicker film
entirely non-birefringent. For confirming the homeotropic
columnar orientation in the 500 mm-thick film, we measured
small-angle X-ray scattering (SAXS) patterns by orientating
the film plane of the sample parallel to the incident X-ray
beam (Figure 3g). As shown in Figure 3h, the SAXS pattern,
observed before E-field treatment, was conical, which indi-
cates that the sample is macroscopically not anisotropic. In
contrast, after the LC film was annealed under an applied
E field (3.9 VppmmÀ1), only two explicit diffuse spots resulted
in the equatorial direction (Figure 3i). The q values (which
correspond to d-spacings) for the observed diffuse spots
(1.80 nmÀ1) agreed well with those expected for a (100)
reflection of the hexagonal lattice (1.78 nmÀ1), demonstrating
that the (100) plane of the lattice is oriented homeotropically
to the film plane. Such a thick LC film composed of
unidirectionally oriented columns is unprecedented.
Although several methods, for example, substrates with
special surface coatings,[11] are known to realize homeotropic
columnar orientation of certain discotic LC molecules, the
largest attainable film thickness with uniform orientation is in
most cases around 20 mm.
Figure 2. Polarizing optical micrographs (POM) under crossed polar-
izers. a) 1COR at 1408C, b) 2TP at 1108C, c) 3HPB at 1408C, d) 4aTTF at
1058C, e) 4bTTF at 1058C, f) 4cTTF at 1008C, g) 5aOT at 1758C, h) 5bOT
at 1658C, i) 5cOT at 2108C, j) 6aPN at 1008C, k) 6bPN at 938C, l and
m) 4bTTF at 1058C. The dashed lines represent the borders of E-field-
operating and non-operating parts. a)–k) A sandwich-type glass cell
composed of patterned ITO electrodes with a gap of 5 mm, at which
an E field (10–50 VppmmÀ1) was site-selectively applied to a part of
each sample, located between the ITO electrodes, from a vertical
direction relative to the substrate. l) and m) A glass cell composed of
comb-type ITO electrodes with a gap of 50 mm was used, as which an
E field (27.5 VppmmÀ1) was site-selectively applied to a part of the
sample, located between the ITO electrodes, from a horizontal
direction relative to the substrate. m) The micrograph was taken after
rotation of the sample by 458 around the optical axis of the
configuration in (l).
These three compounds commonly bear side chains that are
identical to those of 1COR and 2TP. For investigating the
flexibility of the design startegy targeting at E-field respon-
sive liquid-crystalline molecules, we also synthesized 4bTTF
/
4cTTF and 5aOT/5cOT, which are structurally diversified ver-
sions of their parent molecules in terms of the number of
spacing methylene units between the core and amide parts
and the pattern of branching in the paraffinic tail attached to
the amide handle. In addition to these discotic molecules,
nondiscotic references 6aPN and 6bPN, bearing a phthalonitrile
(PN) core, were synthesized. By means of differential
scanning calorimetry (DSC), POM, and X-ray diffraction
(XRD) analysis, we confirmed that all these compounds are
liquid-crystalline and assemble columnarly (see the Support-
ing Information). However, there are some variations. Judg-
ing from the values of intercolumnar distances summarized in
Figure 1, the assembly of the LC compounds, listed above the
With only one exception, 3HPB, 4aTTF–4cTTF, 5cOT, and
6bPN, which can be oriented in an E field, all showed that their
homeotropic columnar orientation, developed by the action
of the E field, was maintained even after the applied E field
was switched off. In contrast, when 5aOT with aromatic amide
handles directly attached to the discotic core was monitored
after switching off the E field, roughly 30% of the dark field
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rectangular-shaped 1.0 Hz E field (27.5 VppmmÀ1) of in-plane
alternating current was applied at 1058C to 4bTTF at its LC
mesophase. As shown by a polarizing optical micrograph in
Figure 2l taken under crossed polarizers, a part of the sample
located between the ITO electrodes displayed a dark field
when the applied E field was directed along either of the two
polarizer axes (Figure 2l). Upon rotation of the cell around
the optical axis, POM displayed a contrast at every 458
(Figure 2m). That is, the LC columns are oriented horizon-
tally with respect to the substrate. We also found that the
molecular program which can be aligned by the E field,
perfectly operates regardless of whether the substrate surface
is bare ITO or modified ITO coated with oriented polyimide
films such as AL1254 and JALS204 (JSR). As for the E-field-
induced large-area alignment of columnarly assembled LC
molecules, we propose that the initial event involves unidirec-
tional orientation of the amide handles in such a way that the
resulting macroscopic dipole can be directed antiparallel to
the applied E field. To confirm the E-field responsiveness of
the amide handle, we measured second harmonic generation
(SHG) profiles of 2TP at its Colh LC mesophase, because SHG
is a reliable probe for the detection of macroscopic dipoles in
materials.[13] At first, we confirmed that the LC material, as
expected, is SHG-silent, regardless of whether the columns
are unidirectionally oriented or not. Namely, microscopic
local dipoles in the material are cancelled out. Then, we
applied an E field (10.0 Hz, 25 VmmÀ1) of direct current to the
LC sample, whereupon an explicit SHG signal emerged
(Figure 4). However, when the E field was switched off, the
Figure 3. Polarizing optical micrographs (POM) under crossed polar-
izers at 928C. a)–f) Compound 6bPN was placed in sandwich-type
glass cells composed of patterned ITO electrodes with designated
electrode gaps ranging from 25 to 500 mm, at which an E field (100–
1900 Vpp) was applied site-selectively to a part of each sample, located
between the ITO electrodes, from a horizontal direction relative to the
substrate. Electrode gaps of a) 25, b) 50, c) 75, d) 100, e) 250, and
f) 500 mm. The dashed lines represent the borders of E-field-operating
and non-operating parts. Small-angle X-ray scattering (SAXS):
g) sample configuration for SAXS measurements using ITO electrodes
with a gap of 500 mm. SAXS profiles at 258C h) before and i) after
applying an E field at 928C. j) Plots of the sample thickness (that is,
the gap between the electrodes) versus the strength of E field required
for homeotropic columnar orientation at 928C.
turned to be birefringent after three days at 1708C. The
columnarly assembled compounds 5bOT (Figure 2 h) and 6aPN
(Figure 2j) cannot be aligned by the action of the E field,
even when its power was increased by changing the applied
voltage to 60 VppmmÀ1. In these examples, the phase
diagrams in Figure 1 commonly feature a very rigid Cub
mesophase, which possibly affects the fluidity of the connect-
ing Col mesophase. Nevertheless, partially modified 5cOT and
6bPN can both be aligned unidirectionally by the action of an
E field (Figure 2i,k). Namely, the branched paraffinic tail,
when properly designed,[12] supports the implementation of
the amide handle for large-area columnar orientation of the
discotic LC molecules.
Figure 4. Second harmonic generation (SHG) profiles of a hexagonal
columnar liquid-crystalline assembly of compound 2TP in response to
an applied E field. Solely in grey-colored areas, an E field of direct
current (10.0 Hz, 25 VmmÀ1) was applied to the sample at 1108C.
SHG signal vanished instantaneously. Such an on/off SHG
profile of the material in response to the E field was repeated
many times without any decay. Judging from the molecular
structure of 2TP, the E-field-responsive SHG profile can be
accounted for by the unidirectional orientation of the hydro-
gen-bonded amide handles of 2TP.[14] This molecular event,
occurring over a macroscopic length scale, could eventually
trigger local and then large-area unidirectional orientation of
the LC columns. In general, E-field-induced orientation of
polar molecules has been considered to occur either dipolarly
or dielectrically.[1] In the present system, the former mecha-
nism is more likely, taking into account also the fact that the
Depending on the direction of the applied E field, the LC
columns can be oriented not only homeotropically but also in
other directions. For demonstrating the horizontal columnar
orientation relative to the substrate, we used a glass cell
composed of comb-type electrodes with a gap of 50 mm, and a
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orientation is proportional to the voltage applied for the
action of the E field (Figure 3j).[1]
Overall, we successfully developed the first E-field-
responsive handle that enables large-area unidirectional
columnar orientation of a variety of extended p-conjugated
molecules. By taking advantage of the method using an
E field, the columns can be oriented in any directions even in
a millimeter-thick film. Furthermore, the columnar orienta-
tion, once developed by the action of the E field, is
maintained after the E field is switched off. None of the
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realize all these features. The concept of E-field-responsive
handles is not only promising for the growing field of organic
electronics, but also interesting for remote manipulation of
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Received: April 10, 2011
Published online: July 5, 2011
Keywords: hydrogen bonds · liquid crystals · self-assembly ·
.
semiconductors · supramolecular chemistry
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[6] Examples of nondiscotic columnar LCs, which can be oriented
by an E field, with polar groups other than hydrogen-bonding
Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2011, 50, 7865 –7869
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