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. 2016 Jul 4;7:12094. doi: 10.1038/ncomms12094

Figure 2. Photoinduced melting in a columnar LC phase.

Figure 2

(a) Differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) traces of 1 at 2 °C min–1 rate of cooling (top) and heating (bottom). (b) Crystal packing structure of a derivative 2 with no dendritic peripheral chain. Interfacial distance of the π-stacked anthracene moieties, d(π–π)=3.50 Å. Intermolecular distance between the photoreactive carbon sites, d(C–C)=4.84 Å. Bent angle of the V-shaped molecule, ϕ=43.8°. (c) POM image of the LC film of 1 (bright) and its photoirradiated area (dark) under the crossed Nicols. Scale bar, 500 μm. (d) Isothermal photoinduced melting of 1 in the range of 70–135 °C (left to right), in which the columnar LC phase of 1 is photochemically transformed into a fluid mixture mainly composed of unreacted 1 and its photodimer product. Heating the melted mixture at 160 °C induces a thermal back reaction of the photodimer into the monomer 1, which recovers the columnar LC phase when the temperature is set again in the range of 70–135 °C (right to left).