Amphiphilic benzothiadiazole derivatives: synthesis, self-assembly and applications as light-emitting liquid crystal display and switchable anisotropic scattering device

Series of benzothiadiazole based amphiphilic mesogens consisting of a rigid 4,7-diphenyl-2,1,3-benzothia diazole core with three lipophilic flexible alkoxy chains at one end and a polar glyceryl group at the other end were synthesized. The influence of the type of the linking groups in the rigid core and the length of terminal alkoxy chain on their self-assembly behavior and photophysical properties was investigated. These compounds can self-assemble into luminescent liquid crystals (LCs) with columnar/p6mm and CubI/Im3m lattices as well as luminescent organo gels with different morphologies. Furthermore, the applications of these compounds as light-emitting liquid crystal display (LE-LCD) as well as electrically switchable anisotropic scattering device were realized. (C) 2022 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.