Abstract
BABH-n is a thermotropic cubic mesogen, which exhibits bicontinuous cubic structures with Ia3d or Im3m symmetries depending on temperature and alkyl chain length n (n is the number of carbon atoms in the chain). Two alkyl tails at both ends are identical, and thus, the molecular structure of BABH-n is centro-symmetric, as in most thermotropic cubic mesogens. Our interest is the relationship between the molecular structure and nanostructure of the cubic phase. We synthesized the BABH-based molecules having the alkyl tails with different lengths, introducing asymmetry in the molecular structure. The effect of the asymmetry on the cubic phase formation and the nanostructure was examined by the combined method of differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), polarized optical microscopy (POM), and X-ray diffraction (XRD).
