Diastereomeric liquid crystal domains at the mesoscale.
Nat Commun 2015;
6:7763. [PMID:
26249039 DOI:
10.1038/ncomms8763]
[Citation(s) in RCA: 31] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/02/2014] [Accepted: 06/08/2015] [Indexed: 12/11/2022] Open
Abstract
In many technologies used to achieve separation of enantiomers, chiral selectors are designed to display differential affinity for the two enantiomers of a chiral compound. Such complexes are diastereomeric, differing in structure and free energy for the two enantiomers and enabling chiral discrimination. Here we present evidence for strong diastereomeric interaction effects at the mesoscale, manifested in chiral liquid crystal guest materials confined in a chiral, nanoporous network of semi-crystalline helical nanofilaments. The nanoporous host is itself an assembly of achiral, bent-core liquid crystal molecules that phase-separate into a conglomerate of 100 micron-scale, helical nanofilament domains that differ in structure only in the handedness of their homogeneous chirality. With the inclusion of a homochiral guest liquid crystal, these enantiomeric domains become diastereomeric, exhibiting unexpected and markedly different mesoscale structures and orientation transitions producing optical effects in which chirality has a dominant role.
Collapse