Dendromesogens: Liquid crystal organizations of poly(amidoamine) dendrimers versus starburst structures

A new series of liquid crystalline poly(amidoamine) (PAMAM) dendrimers is d escribed. These dendrimers are made by attaching to the 0-, 1-, 2-, 3-, and 4-generation of PAMAM-terminal promesogenic units that carry two decyloxy chains in the 3- and 4-positions of their peripheral aromatic ring. X-ray d iffraction studies show that all the compounds display a hexagonal columnar mesophase. A high density of aliphatic chains imposes a curved interface w ith the promesogenic units that forces the molecules to adopt a radial conf ormation, and therefore, the columnar structure, A model for the supramolec ular organization of the different generations within the columnar mesophas e is proposed based on the variation of some of the structural parameters.