Two-Photon Laser Microprinting of Highly Ordered Nanoporous Materials Based on Hexagonal Columnar Liquid Crystals

Nanoporous materials relying on supramolecular liquid crystals (LCs) are excellent candidates for size- and charge-selective membranes. However, whether they can be manufactured using printing technologies remained unexplored so far. In this work, we develop a new approach for the fabrication of ordered nanoporous microstructures based on supramolecular LCs using two-photon laser printing. In particular, we employ photo-cross-linkable hydrogen-bonded complexes, that self-assemble into columnar hexagonal (Col_h) mesophases, as the base of our printable photoresist. The presence of photopolymerizable groups in the periphery of the molecules enables the printability using a laser. We demonstrate the conservation of the Col_h arrangement and of the adsorptive properties of the materials after laser microprinting, which highlights the potential of the approach for the fabrication of functional nanoporous structures with a defined geometry. This first example of printable Col_h LC should open new opportunities for the fabrication of functional porous microdevices with potential application in catalysis, filtration, separation, or molecular recognition.