Liquid crystals with hierarchical ordering

Abstract

We present liquid crystal geometries experimentally found for star-polyphilic molecules as the basic building block. Star-polyphiles are small molecules, bearing three mutually immiscible chains attached to a common center [1,2,3]. Like conventional lipids or surfactants (that usually have two immisciblechains), such molecules self-assemble to form lamellar, hexagonal, micellar cubic and bicontinuous cubic structures. However, the presence of the third immiscible chain significantly increases structural complexity and hierarchical ordering can occur.