Liquid Organic Frameworks: The Single-Network “Plumber’s Nightmare” Bicontinuous Cubic Liquid Crystal

Abstract

Novel bolapolyphiles, built of a <i>p</i>-terphenyl or bistolane core with polar glycerol end-groups and two laterally attached <i>n</i>-alkyl or semiperfluoroalkyl chains, form the first "single plumber's nightmare network", the simplest soft-matter cubic phase (<i>Pm</i>3̅<i>m</i>). Its cage-like grid comprises bundles of aromatic rods lying along the cubic unit cell edges, connected by six-way hydrogen-bonded junctions. Side-chains fill the remaining volume of this unique noninterpenetrating liquid-crystalline organic framework.