Columnar Mesophases From Metal and Metal-Free Derivatives of Phthalocyanine

Abstract

Abstract A series of phthalocyanine octasubstituted derivatives were studied using optical microscopy and X-ray diffraction. Some of them were metal-free; the rest contained various metal atoms such as copper, zinc or manganese in the center of the aromatic cores. For most of the derivatives, the substituents consisted of eight peripheral decyloxymethyl chains; for one there were six of these plus two cyano groups attached to the same benzene ring; for another, there were short “polyethylene oxide” chains. All the samples considered in this work exhibited columnar mesophases with hexagonal packing of the columns, stable in a wide range of temperatures.