Flexibility and local structure of a worm-like cylinder of self-assembled discotic triazine triamide

Small- and wide-angle X-ray scattering from an organogel system made from discotic triazine triamide (TRI) in octanol was carried out using a synchrotron X-ray source to provide scattering profiles for a wide range of scattering vectors, of range 0.050nm(-1) <q <20nm(-1), where q is the magnitude of the scattering vector. The analyses of the profiles revealed the following features: (1) the amorphous nature of the molecular stacking at a distance of 0.32 nm; (2) the presence of a semiflexible rod-like scattering object with a radius of 1.3 nm and a Kuhn length of 55 nm; and (3) branching of the cylinder formed in the gel state. These findings lead to the conclusion that the aggregated TRI functions in the manner of a semiflexible polymer chain in octanol and that the polymer-chain-like behavior of TRI cylinders is the origin of the gel nature of this system. Polymer Journal (2010) 42, 812-817; doi:10.1038/pj.2010.72; published online 25 August 2010