Abstract
Polymerization of self-assembled supramolecular structures considerably increases their often limiting thermal and chemical stability, which widens their potential application in commercial products. Particularly interesting for self-assembled materials is the topochemical polymerization of diacetylenes to polydiacetylenes because it can be initiated photochemically and thermally without the need for additives, it proceeds with minimal structural changes, and it generates new functionality since polydiacetylene is a 1-dimensional organic semiconductor and absorbs visible light. Polydiacetylenes have been generated in single crystals, gel phases, thin films, and membranes but their formation in mesophases, such as liquid crystals, has been surprisingly little studied although higher ordered mesophases should support the topochemical polymerization of diacetylenes (1,3-butadiyne groups) and may give access to large domains of uniformly aligned materials. Presented here are tetraazaporphyrins that contain eight alkyl chains with diacetylene groups to probe their mesomorphism and conversion into multifunctional polydiacetylene materials. While incorporation of diacetylene groups supports columnar mesomorphism, successful photopolymerization required the presence of directing amide groups that suppressed columnar in favour of nematic mesomorphism. Still, polymerization of the nematic mesophase generated a soluble nematic polydiacetylene of significantly higher molecular weight (Mn = 77 kDa or 25 monomer units by GPC) than what has been obtained in gel phases of related compounds. Formation of polydiacetylene was confirmed by Raman spectroscopy and its nematic structure was verified by UV-vis spectroscopy, polarized optical microscopy, and X-ray diffraction. Both, its nematic structure and the incorporation of eight side-chains per discotic unit provide the polydiacetylene with sufficient solubility for casting thin films on substrates. AFM studies of films casted onto silicon wafers revealed a grid-like structure of connected nanofibers.