Improving the mesomorphic behaviour of supramolecular liquid crystals by resonance-assisted hydrogen bonding

A systematic structure-property relationship study on hydrogen-bonded liquid crystals was performed, revealing the impact of resonance-assisted hydrogen bonds (RAHBs) on the self-assembling behavior of the supramolecular architecture. The creation of a six-membered intramolecular hydrogen-bonded ring acts as a counterpart to the self-organization between hydrogen bond donators and acceptors and determines thus the suprastructure. Variation of the hydrogen-bonding pattern allowed us to significantly improve the temperature range of the reported liquid crystalline assemblies.