Ionic liquids and liquid crystals have both been subject to extensive study, yielding a plethora of useful applications. The confluence of these two fields offers the opportunity to synthesize a class of materials capable of displaying the useful properties of ionic liquids and liquid crystals to varying degrees. A typical approach to synthesis involves bonding a rigid organic cation, commonly the imidazolium ring, to a long and flexible aliphatic chain. The resulting molecule maintains its ionic character and contains a rigid-flexible antagonistic pair leading to mesomorphic ordering. With this foundation, we proceeded to generate and fully characterize 15 ionic liquid crystals exhibiting an imidazolium ring functionalized with a nitrile moiety. Furthermore, the effect of the anion selection on the stability and ordering of the liquid crystal phase was explored. These ionic molecules will be used to prepare mesomorphic complexes via nitrile coordination on transition metals in order to obtain more functional materials (luminescent, magnetic, catalytic…).

Novel ionic liquid crystals based on nitrile functionalized imidazolium

249th National Meeting (2015)

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