Metallotropic liquid crystals formed by surfactant templating of molten metal halides

Liquid crystals consist of anisotropic molecular units, and most are organic molecules. Materials incorporating metals into anisotropic molecules, described as metallomesogens, have been prepared(1). Anisotropic structures such as one-dimensional chains and two-dimensional layers are frequently observed in solid-state inorganic materials, however, little is understood about structural organization in melts of such materials. Achieving liquid-crystalline behaviour in inorganic fluids should be possible if the anisotropic structure can be retained or designed into the molten phase. We demonstrated the ability to engineer zeolite-type structures into metal halide glasses and liquids(2,3). In this work we have engineered lamellar, cubic and hexagonal liquid-crystalline structure in metal-halide melts by controlling the volume fraction and nature of the inorganic block ( up to 80 mol%) with respect to alkylammonium surfactants. The high metal content of these liquid-crystalline systems significantly advances the field of metallomesogens, which seeks to combine magnetic, electronic, optical, redox and catalytic properties common to inorganic materials with the fluid properties of liquid crystals.