Novel glass-forming organic materials. 3. Cubane with pendant nematogens, carbazole, and disperse red 1

Mesogenic and nonmesogenic functional moieties were attached as pendant groups to the cubane core for an investigation of the glass-forming ability and morphological stability of the hybrid systems. Nematogens and carbazole were found to yield hybrid systems that are nematic and isotropic, respectively, all capable of vitrification with above-ambient glass transition temperatures (T g s). Moreover, DR1 was found to yield a hybrid system possessing S A mesomorphism upon thermal processing under kinetically controlled conditions; it was further demonstrated that S A glass could be obtained with a T g of 95 °C. On the other hand, crystals were obtained with thermal processing under thermodynamically controlled conditions. Of the five model compounds based on cubane, it appears that the lower the melting or clearing temperature of the pendant group, the more morphologically stable the hybrid system. It was also found that adamantane-based systems possess about the same T g with a superior morphological stability in comparison to the cubane-based counterparts.