Discotic liquid crystals with aggregation-induced emission properties based on tetraphenylethylene and triphenylene derivatives

A novel aggregation-induced emission active molecules (TP-Cn-PETPE, n = 4 and 10) were synthesized, which contain a tetraphenylethene derivative as the emission active moiety, a pentahexyloxytriphenylene core as the mesogenic unit and an alkoxy spacer. Experimental results revealed that these two compounds both had AIE properties, even in the liquid state at room temperature. While only TP-C4-PETPE showed a monotropic liquid crystal phase upon heating. In addition, these two compounds were fully characterized by 1H and 13C NMR, IR, EA and MS.