Lyotropic liquid crystals form various nano-segregated structures such as 1D channel, 2D layer, and 3D network structures. By introducing polymerizable groups into amphiphile design and then performing in-situ polymerization in lyotropic liquid-crystalline (LC) states, it is possible to convert LC fluidic materials to polymer films with preserving the nanostructures. To date, many researches on in-situ polymerization of LC assemblies have been reported using polymerizable amphiphiles.<br/>We have developed lyotropic LC systems containing amino acid ionic liquids as self-organization solvent. Owing to high designability of ionic liquids, we expect it is possible to introduce polymerizable groups into these ionic liquids. In this study, we designed amino acid ionic liquids having vinylimidazolium cations to perform in-situ polymerization of ionic liquids in LC states, especially in bicontinuous cubic states having 3D network structure. By mixing several types of amphiphiles with the polymerizable ionic liquids, we obtained lyotropic LC samples forming normal- and inverse-type bicontinuous cubic phases (Figure 1). It is assumed that ionic liquids in these mesophases are aligned on 3D networked channel structure (Figure 1, blue) or 3D networked layer structure (Figure1, red). We will present the polymerization behavior of ionic liquids in the two types of bicontinuous cubic LC phases and physicochemical properties and functions of the obtained nanostructured ionic polymers.

Polymerization of vinylimidazolium-based amino acid ionic liquids in bicontinuous cubic liquid-crystalline assemblies

2019 Fall National Meeting

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