Dendromesogens: liquid crystal organizations of poly(amidoamine) dendrimers versus starburst structures

Chemistry. 2001 Mar 2;7(5):1006-13. doi: 10.1002/1521-3765(20010302)7:5<1006::aid-chem1006>3.0.co;2-n.

Abstract

A new series of liquid crystalline poly(amidoamine) (PAMAM) dendrimers is described. These dendrimers are made by attaching to the 0-, 1-, 2-, 3-, and 4-generation of PAMAM-terminal promesogenic units that carry two decyloxy chains in the 3- and 4-positions of their peripheral aromatic ring. X-ray diffraction studies show that all the compounds display a hexagonal columnar mesophase. A high density of aliphatic chains imposes a curved interface with the promesogenic units that forces the molecules to adopt a radial conformation, and therefore, the columnar structure. A model for the supramolecular organization of the different generations within the columnar mesophase is proposed based on the variation of some of the structural parameters.