Lamellar Assembly of Conical Molecules Possessing a Fullerene Apex in Crystals and Liquid Crystals

Shuttlecock molecules made of fullerene and five side chains that have previously been shown to self-assemble into a polar columnar structure are now made into a lamellar structure in crystals and liquid crystals. The molecular design is such that the conical molecules C60(C6H4C⋮CSiMe2nCnH2n+1)5Me form crystals when the silicon substituent is a methyl group and that they form smectic liquid crystals when one of them is a long hydrocarbon chain. The fullerene groups in each layer interact with each other very strongly, suggesting that such lamellar structures may be useful for organic electronics applications.