Heating-Induced Switching to Hierarchical Liquid Crystallinity Combining Colloidal and Molecular Order in Zwitterionic Molecules.

ABSTRACT: Hierarchical self-assemblies of soft matter involving triggerable or switchable structures at different length scales have been pursued toward multifunctional behaviors and complexity inspired by biological matter. They require several and balanced competing attractive and repulsive interactions, which provide a grand challenge in particular in the "bulk" state, i.e., in the absence of plasticizing solvents. Here, we disclose that zwitterionic bis-n-tetradecylphosphobetaine, as a model compound, shows a complex thermally switchable hierarchical self-assembly in the solvent-free state. It shows polymorphism and heating-induced reversible switching from low-temperature molecular-level assemblies to high-temperature hierarchical self-assemblies, unexpectedly combining colloidal and mol

SUBMITTER: Gustavsson L 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10601052 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature