Pre-submission Thesis Presentation

Molecular self-assembly stands as a remarkable phenomenon wherein molecules organize themselves spontaneously into stable, well-defined structures. It is mainly governed by non-covalent interactions such as electrostatic attraction, hydrogen bonding, van der Waals interactions, hydrophilic and hydrophobic interactions, etc. Liquid crystals, possessing characteristics of both crystalline solids and isotropic liquids, constitute a significant portion of self-assembling materials. Their versatile applications span from display technologies to drug delivery systems. Our interest mainly focuses on the synthesis, characterization, and selfassembly of various steroidal and discotic mesogens. In this talk, I will be discussing the synthesis and structure-property relationship of various sterol-based mesogens as well as discotic mesogens derived from the ring extension of triphenylene and perylene cores. Polarizing optical microscopy (POM), differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), and X-ray diffractometry (XRD) were employed to probe the nature of the mesophases. Whereas, emission and absorption spectroscopy were utilized to explore the photophysical behavior. The synthesized compounds not only provide insights into the structure-property relationship but also certain discotic compounds are found to be promising candidates for optoelectronic applications.