Liquid Crystalline Nanowires by Polymerization Induced Hierarchical Self-Assembly

By taking advantage of strong liquid crystallization ordering and photo dimerization of the mesogen stilbene, we propose large-scale synthesis of nanowires of stilbene-containing block copolymers by polymerization induced hierarchical self-assembly. The interior of nanowires is in the type of liquid crystal (LC) structure with highly ordered smectic LC layers, which are perpendicular to the long axis. The alternative striped structure consists of the polymethacrylate backbone and stilbene-containing side chain. The approach is general toward stilbene-containing block copolymer LC nanowires, irrelevant with the composition of stabilizer blocks. The nanowires become robust with the layered structure preserved after cross-linking via dimerization upon UV irradiation. The nanowires reported here may provide one-dimensional model blocks toward superstructures, which can be used in the fields of electric nanoconductors, functional additives, etc.