Viologen-based ionic liquid crystals: Induction of a smectic A phase by dimerisation

The stability of thermotropic ionic liquid crystals is essentially due to micro-phase segregation between the ionic heads and the long alkyl chains. Here we show, using newly synthesized viologen dimers, that the structure of the central core is another key parameter to play with in order to tune the mesomorphic behaviour. © 2014 the Owner Societies.