Supermolecular Liquid Crystals - Liquid Crystalline Functional Assemblies and Their Supramolecular Structures - page 41

Fig. 49 The homeotropic and rectilinear defect textures of the hexagonal columnar phase
of supermolecule 43 (

×

100)

sualize unless the mesogenic groups surround the octasilsesquioxane core to
give a cotton-reel-like structure. From the point of view of the mesophase
structure, the best fit to the X-ray data was obtained using such a “cotton-
reel” model, see Fig. 50, which suggests that in the hexagonal columnar phase
the dendrimer assumes a cylindrical shape that has approximately the same
height as its diameter. The long axes of the mesogenic units are roughly par-

Fig. 50 Cotton-reel model of supermolecular material 43