Host: The Japanese Liquid Crystal Society
Name : 2019 Japanese Liquid Crystal Conference
Location : [in Japanese]
Date : September 04, 2019 - September 06, 2019
We recently reported a flexible achiral liquid crystal trimer exhibiting a novel dark chiral conglomerate (DC) phase. The trimer was found to form a periodic porous structure at the surface in the DC phase. We attempted to apply the porous surface as a catalyst for aldol reactions. The racemic aldol product was obtained in 40 % yield for the direct aldol reaction of acetone with benzaldehyde in DMSO/acetone (4/1) with 10 mol% of the trimer in the DC phase. When we used the trimer in the crystalline state or a bent-core molecule in the B4 phase, no aldol product was obtained. We discuss catalytic activity of the trimer on the aldol reaction.
