Structural Understanding, Photoswitchability, and Supergelation of a New Class of Four Ring-Based Bent-Shaped Liquid Crystal

Herein, we report
a new type of azobenzene-based unsymmetrical
bent-core molecules exhibiting photoswitchability in the liquid crystalline
state, solid state, and solution state and in mixture upon UV irradiation
and intense visible light. The compounds exhibited solid-state photochromism
upon exposure to UV light, whereas in liquid crystalline state, reversible
phase transitions were observed via both UV irradiation and intense
visible light exposure. Crystal structure analysis reveals the basic
structural understanding such as nonplanar bent molecular shape, antiparallel
arrangement of the polar bent molecules, intra- and intermolecular
hydrogen bonding, and different π–π interactions
and interdigitation of long alkyl chains. The compounds are also found
to act as supergelator toward various organic solvents. Hence, this
is an excellent example of such potential bent-shaped liquid crystals
that promise an immense perspective for device applications such as
optical storage, molecular switches, etc.