Chiral supramolecular materials from columnar liquid crystals

Chirality plays an integral role in the molecular organization of many liquid crystals and, consequently, in the design of liquid crystal-based supramolecular materials. Chiral columnar phases are of particular interest since they can serve as synthetic templates for polymer networks with helical channels or pores. Several beta-diketonate ligands have been synthesized to contain a chiral directing element and/or a polymerizable moiety. Octahedral iron complexes of these ligands were crosslinked in the columnar hexagonal phase using acyclic diene metathesis (ADMET) polymerization. The resulting materials were chiral and retained the order of the mesophase.