Self-Assembly Behavior of Dendritic Liquid Crystals and its Implications in the Packing Structure of Functional Molecular Nanoparticles

In this mini-review, the self-assembly characteristics of dendritic liquid crystals (LCs) are summarized. By studying and comparing the mesomorphic behavior of dendritic LCs with various core units and peripheral mesogenic units, their packing principle is established. It is found that the chirality, connecting position, and curvature of the peripheral mesogenic units play significant roles in the resulting self-assembly structures of dendritic LCs, whereas the core symmetry and strength of intramolecular interaction affect the geometry and conformational preferences of the dendritic LCs. This fundamental knowledge gives useful guidelines to predict the self-assembly behaviors of novel functional molecular nanoparticles, which share very similar molecular architecture with dendritic LCs.