Liquid Crystalline Zinc Chloride

Abstract

ABSTRACTThe templated syntheses of our zeolite-type frameworks of metal halides frequently result in the formation of glassy phases or viscous liquids that might be described as ambient temperature molten salts. Having discovered that certain of these materials exhibit remarkable birefringence, we have investigated the structure of both the glass and liquid forms of alkylammonium templated zinc chloride materials by neutron and X-ray diffraction, as well as DSC and polarizing microscopy techniques. Further template control using alkylammonium surfactants as directors has yielded an entire family of liquid crystalline materials with up to 90% inorganic content. The compositional dependence of the structure of these liquid crystalline phases suggests that these materials are best described as “solvent-free” lyotropic liquid crystals.