Thermotropic organization of hydrogen-bond-bridged bolaform amphiphiles

A series of quaternary ammonium amphiphiles (A-n) bearing carboxylic acid groups were designed and synthesized. The branched bolaform structures can be constructed by dimerizations of carboxylic acid groups through intermolecular hydrogen bonding, as demonstrated by the Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) spectra and the temperature-dependent FT-IR spectra. The thermotropic organizations of branched bolaform ammonium dimer complexes were characterized by differential scanning calorimetry, polarized optical microscopy, and X-ray diffraction. We investigated the influence of the spacer between the cationic group and the benzene ring on the thermotropic organization. A-6 with short lateral alkyl chains formed a simple layered structure at room temperature and exhibited smectic A mesophase above 145 °C, whereas A-8 with intermediate lateral chain length organized into smectic A phase over a wide temperature range. A further increase of the length (n = 10, 12) of the lateral chains resulted in the formation of lamellar structure with in-plane layered periodicity, which is rare in the organization of ionic compounds. A packing model of the quasi-2D lamellar was proposed on the basis of the experimental data of X-ray diffraction results. Notably, the quasi-2D lamellar structure could evolve into a simple layer with the increase of temperature. The present results showed a direct relationship in which the branched architecture can be applied to tune the self-assembly behavior of ionic amphiphiles and is allowed to construct new layered superstructure.