Supramolecular columnar liquid crystals formed by hydrogen bonding between a clicked star-shaped s-triazine and benzoic acids.

A star-shaped tris(triazolyl)triazine is shown to establish hydrogen-bond interactions with polycatenar benzoic acids. The formation of hydrogen-bonded triazine/acid complexes has been demonstrated both in solution and in bulk by different techniques. The complexes, mainly formed by nonmesogenic components, all show enantiotropic hexagonal columnar mesomorphism, which relies on the formation of hydrogen-bond complexes in a triazine/acid ratio of 1:3. This approach combines the straightforward synthesis of a nonmesomorphic triazine core by click chemistry, and the preparation of a supramolecular complex, providing a much more convenient route than covalent synthesis to modify the periphery of triazine discotics and thus to modulate their functionality.