Antiaromatic expanded porphyrin enables redox-tunable photoconductivity in columnar liquid crystals
- 1Department of Chemistry, The University of Texas at Austin 105 East 24th Street Austin Texas 78712-1224 USA
- 2Department of Chemical Science and Engineering, Graduate School of Engineering, Kyoto University Nishikyo-ku Kyoto 615-8510 Japan
- 3Instituto de Nanociencia y Materiales de Aragón (INMA), Departamento de Química Orgánica, Facultad de Ciencias, CSIC-Universidad de Zaragoza Zaragoza 50009 Spain
Abstract
Liquid crystals (LCs) based on π-conjugated building blocks are well-established platforms for engineering soft optoelectronic materials. However, the incorporation of antiaromatic frameworks-despite their potential to unlock new functional paradigms-remains highly challenging. Herein, we report an antiaromatic expanded porphyrin that upon heating and then cooling self-assembles into a highly ordered rectangular columnar mesophase (Colr). The resulting supramolecular organization enables photoinduced charge transport in the LC state that is markedly enhanced compared to the amorphous precursor state. Reductive (n-type) and oxidative (p-type) chemical doping was found to generate stabilized open-shell radical species within the Colr assemblies and further boost their photoconductivity. The findings reported here establish antiaromatic expanded porphyrins as promising platforms for the construction of redox-responsive semiconducting soft materials.
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BibTeX
@article{nguyen2026antiaromatic,
title = {{Antiaromatic expanded porphyrin enables redox-tunable photoconductivity in columnar liquid crystals}},
author = {Duong D. Nguyen and W. Ryan Osterloh and Alberto Concellón and Teresa Sierra and Jorge Labella and Shu Seki and Jonathan L. Sessler},
journal = {Chemical Science},
year = {2026},
month = sep,
doi = {10.1039/d6sc06405a},
url = {https://doi.org/10.1039/d6sc06405a},
note = {CC BY 3.0},
}
RIS
TY - JOUR
TI - Antiaromatic expanded porphyrin enables redox-tunable photoconductivity in columnar liquid crystals
AU - Duong D. Nguyen
AU - W. Ryan Osterloh
AU - Alberto Concellón
AU - Teresa Sierra
AU - Jorge Labella
AU - Shu Seki
AU - Jonathan L. Sessler
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/09/14
JO - Chemical Science
DO - 10.1039/d6sc06405a
UR - https://doi.org/10.1039/d6sc06405a
AB - Liquid crystals (LCs) based on π-conjugated building blocks are well-established platforms for engineering soft optoelectronic materials. However, the incorporation of antiaromatic frameworks-despite their potential to unlock new functional paradigms-remains highly challenging. Herein, we report an antiaromatic expanded porphyrin that upon heating and then cooling self-assembles into a highly ordered rectangular columnar mesophase (Colr). The resulting supramolecular organization enables photoinduced charge transport in the LC state that is markedly enhanced compared to the amorphous precursor state. Reductive (n-type) and oxidative (p-type) chemical doping was found to generate stabilized open-shell radical species within the Colr assemblies and further boost their photoconductivity. The findings reported here establish antiaromatic expanded porphyrins as promising platforms for the construction of redox-responsive semiconducting soft materials.
SN - 2041-6520
SN - 2041-6539
ER -