title: Noncovalent approach to one-dimensional ion conductors: enhancement of ionic conductivities in nanostructured columnar liquid crystals.
abstract: Noncovalent design of new liquid-crystalline (LC) columnar assemblies based on an ionic liquid has shown to be useful to achieve anisotropic high ionic conductivities. An equimolar mixture of an ionic liquid, 1-butyl-3-methylimidazolium bromide, and 3-[3,4,5-tri(octyloxy)benzoyloxy]propane-1,2-diol, which is partially miscible with the ionic liquid, exhibits an LC hexagonal columnar phase from -4 to 63 degrees C. This columnar supramolecular assembly forming the nanostructures shows the one-dimensional (1D) ionic conductivity of 3.9 x 10(-3) S cm(-1) at 50 degrees C along the column, which is more than 700 times higher than that of the corresponding covalent-type columnar ionic liquid, 1-methyl-3-[3,4,5-tri(octyloxy)benzyl]imidazolium bromide, which is 5.3 x 10(-6) S cm(-1) at 50 degrees C. This significant enhancement of the ionic conductivity is attributed to the increase of the mobility of the ionic part.
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry and Biotechnology, School of Engineering, The University of Tokyo, Hongo, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo 113-8656, Japan.
authors.forename: Harutoki
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Shimura
authors.forename: Masafumi
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Yoshio
authors.forename: Koji
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Hoshino
authors.forename: Tomohiro
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Mukai
authors.forename: Hiroyuki
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Ohno
authors.forename: Takashi
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Kato
mesh_terms: D018360:Crystallography, X-Ray; D004553:Electric Conductivity; D007477:Ions / Q000737:chemistry; D050866:Liquid Crystals / Q000737:chemistry*; D009682:Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy; D015394:Molecular Structure; D049329:Nanostructures / Q000737:chemistry*; D044367:Phase Transition
chemical_list: D007477:Ions