A columnar liquid quasicrystal with a honeycomb structure that consists of triangular, square and trapezoidal cells.

Quasicrystals are intriguing structures that have long-range positional correlations but no periodicity in real space, and typically with rotational symmetries that are 'forbidden' in conventional periodic crystals. Here, we present a two-dimensional columnar liquid quasicrystal with dodecagonal symmetry. Unlike previous dodecagonal quasicrystals based on random tiling, a honeycomb structure based on a strictly quasiperiodic tessellation of tiles is observed.

Lamellar Liquid Crystals of In-Plane Lying Rod-Like Mesogens with Designer Side-Chains: The Case of Sliding versus Locked Layers.

The dimensionality of self-assembled nanostructures plays an essential role for their properties and applications. Herein, an understanding of the transition from weakly to strongly coupled layers in soft matter systems is provided involving in-plane organized π-conjugated rods. For this purpose, bolaamphiphilic triblock molecules consisting of a rigid biphenyl core, polar glycerol groups at the ends, and a branched (swallow-tail) or linear alkyl or semiperfluoroalkyl chain in lateral position have been synthesized and investigated.

Induced smectic phase in binary mixtures of twist-bend nematogens.

The investigation of liquid crystal (LC) mixtures is of great interest in tailoring material properties for specific applications. The recent discovery of the twist-bend nematic phase (N) has sparked great interest in the scientific community, not only from a fundamental viewpoint, but also due to its potential for innovative applications. Here we report on the unexpected phase behaviour of a binary mixture of twist-bend nematogens.

A Liquid-Crystalline Phenylene-Based Shape-Persistent Molecular Spoked Wheel.

Molecular spoked wheels with an all-phenylene backbone and different alkoxy side chain substitution patterns were synthesized using a cobalt-catalyzed [2 + 2 + 2] cycloaddition and subsequent template-directed cyclization via Yamamoto coupling. The two-dimensional organization of the molecules at the solid/liquid interface was investigated by means of scanning tunneling microscopy, allowing imaging of the molecular structure with submolecular resolution. With the right proportion of the flexible alkyl corona to the rigid core, mesomorphic behavior of one compound could be observed over a wide temperature range.