Self-organization of ionic liquids: Liquid-crystalline low-dimensional ion conductors

POLY 340

Takashi Kato, kato@chiral.t.u-tokyo.ac.jp1, Masafumi Yoshio, yoshio@chembio.t.u-tokyo.ac.jp1, Takahiro Ichikawa1, Harutoki Shimura1, Tomohiro Mukai2, Atsushi Hamasaki2, and Hiroyuki Ohno, ohnoh@cc.tuat.ac.jp2. (1) Department of Chemistry and Biotechnology, School of Engineering, The University of Tokyo, Hongo, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo, 113-8656, Japan, (2) Department of Biotechnology, Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology, Koganei, Tokyo, 184-8588, Japan
Room temperature ionic liquids such as imidazolium, pyridinium, and ammonium salts containing perfluorinated anions have advantages for applications as ion-transporting media in batteries as well as reaction media because of their non-volatility and high ionic conductivities. For further functionalization of ionic liquids, the introduction of ordered nanostructures that provide anisotropic conductivities in low dimensions is of great interest. Self-assembly of liquid crystals can be used to obtain such anisotropic functional materials. Recently, we have reported on one-dimensional ion-conductive polymer films that have macroscopically oriented ion-channels. Here we report on one-dimensional ion conductors based on columnar liquid-crystalline imidazolium salts containing tetrafluoroborate, hexafluorophosphate, and trifluoromethylsulfonate anions and their polymerizable derivatives. These columnar liquid-crystalline materials were macroscopically aligned in two directions on the substrates: parallel alignment by mechanical shearing and spontaneous vertical alignment through specific interactions between functionalized substrate and the imidazolium compounds. The ionic conductivities of the aligned materials were measured as a function of temperature. The ionic conductivities parallel to the columnar axis were higher than those perpendicular to the columnar axis.
 

Polymers and Liquid Crystals
8:30 AM-12:00 PM, Tuesday, August 21, 2007 Westin Boston Waterfront -- Otis, Oral

Division of Polymer Chemistry

The 234th ACS National Meeting, Boston, MA, August 19-23, 2007