Related Experiment Video
Updated: Dec 28, 2025
Novel Techniques for Observing Structural Dynamics of Photoresponsive Liquid Crystals
Published on: May 29, 2018
Luminescent Metallacycle-Cored Liquid Crystals Induced by Metal Coordination
Long Chen1, Changlong Chen1, Yue Sun2
1State Key Laboratory for Mechanical Behavior of Materials, Shaanxi International Research Center for Soft Matter, School of Materials Science and Engineering, Xi'an Jiaotong University, Xi'an, 710049, P. R. China.
Abstract:
Two rhomboidal metallacycles based on metal-coordination-driven self-assembly are presented. Because metal-coordination interactions restrict the rotation of phenyl groups on tetraphenylethene units, these metallacycles were emissive both in solution and in solid state, and their aggregation-induced emission properties were well-retained. Moreover, the rhomboidal metallacyclic structures offer a platform for intermolecular packing beneficial for the formation of liquid crystalline phases. Therefore, although neither of building blocks shows mesogenic properties, both thermotropic and lyotropic (in DMF) mesophases were observed in one of metallacycles, indicating that mesophases could be induced by metal-coordination interactions. This study not only reveals the mechanism for the formation of cavity-cored liquid crystals, but also provides a convenient approach to preparing supramolecular luminescent liquid crystals, which will serve as good candidates for chemo sensors and liquid crystal displays.
Related Concept Videos
01:14Photoluminescence: Applications
03:02Colors and Magnetism
When atoms or molecules absorb light at the proper frequency, their electrons are excited to higher-energy orbitals. For many main group atoms and molecules, the absorbed photons are in the ultraviolet range of the electromagnetic spectrum, which cannot be detected by the human eye. For coordination compounds, the energy difference between the d orbitals often allows photons in the visible range to be absorbed and emitted, which is seen as colors by the human...
02:51Metal-Ligand Bonds
In these complexes, transition metals form coordinate covalent bonds, a kind of Lewis acid-base interaction in which both of the electrons in the bond are contributed by a donor (Lewis base) to an electron acceptor (Lewis acid). The Lewis acid in...
02:58Crystal Field Theory - Octahedral Complexes
To explain the observed behavior of transition metal complexes (such as colors), a model involving electrostatic interactions between the electrons from the ligands and the electrons in the unhybridized d orbitals of the central metal atom has been developed. This electrostatic model is crystal field theory (CFT). It helps to understand, interpret, and predict the colors, magnetic behavior, and some structures of coordination compounds of transition metals.
CFT focuses on...
01:23Photoluminescence: Fluorescence and Phosphorescence
A pair of electrons in a...
02:37Metallic Solids
All metallic solids exhibit high thermal and electrical conductivity, metallic luster, and malleability....