Zeng Xiangbing, Ungar Goran, Impéror-Clerc Marianne
Department of Engineering Materials, University of Sheffield, Sheffield S1 3JD, UK.
Nat Mater. 2005 Jul;4(7):562-7. doi: 10.1038/nmat1413. Epub 2005 Jun 5.
Soft matter such as surfactant-water systems, block copolymers or liquid crystals can form periodic structures on nanometre to micrometre scales. This property can be used for templating nanoporous ceramics, surface patterning for electronic devices, or generation of photonic materials. Much attention has been paid to structures appearing between the layer and cylinder phases, the three so-called bicontinuous cubic phases. These are formed by two continuous interpenetrating networks of channels. In this article we describe a related phase, which has the first reported structure consisting of three interpenetrating infinite networks. It is a thermotropic (solvent-free) liquid crystal of cubic symmetry Im3m. The structure is one of the most complex in liquid crystals, and is determined by direct Fourier reconstruction of electron density. We discuss the possible rationale for the existence of such a phase, its structural relationship with the bicontinuous phases, and its position in the phase diagram.
诸如表面活性剂 - 水体系、嵌段共聚物或液晶等软物质能够在纳米到微米尺度上形成周期性结构。这一特性可用于制备纳米多孔陶瓷模板、电子器件的表面图案化或光子材料的生成。人们对层状相和柱状相之间出现的结构，即三种所谓的双连续立方相给予了大量关注。这些相由两个连续的相互贯穿的通道网络构成。在本文中，我们描述了一种相关相，它具有首次报道的由三个相互贯穿的无限网络组成的结构。它是一种具有立方对称性Im3m的热致（无溶剂）液晶。该结构是液晶中最复杂的结构之一，通过电子密度的直接傅里叶重构确定。我们讨论了这种相存在的可能原理、它与双连续相的结构关系以及它在相图中的位置。
