Micellar cubic liquid crystal composed of supramolecular spheres formed by holmium complexes

Abstract

In this study, we focused on holmium (Ho), one of the lanthanide elements with excellent magnetic properties, and prepared liquid crystalline metal complexes with Ho as the central metal. The Ho complexes, having a ligand with a β-diketone moiety introduced alkoxy side chain with 8 carbons, were observed to exhibit a cubic liquid crystal phase. Furthermore, the complex exhibits a supramolecular sphere with three molecules arranged in a column, suggesting that it forms a micellar cubic structure. The Ho complexes exhibit excellent magnetic field response to a neodymium magnet and are found to be paramagnetic by SQUID measurement.