Induced liquid crystallinity in switchable side-chain discotic molecules

Here, we present a strategy whereby a water-soluble tricycloquinazoline (TCQ) core is generated by hydrolysis of the corresponding nonionic hexaacetate, presenting itself as a potential (discotic) mesogen. The in situ generated core fragment was then used as a hexaanionic building block (or tecton) for assembly into ordered liquid-crystalline aggregates using the Ionic Self-Assembly (ISA) technique. The success of this “liquid-crystal-on-demand” strategy is demonstrated by a simple example.