The phase behaviors and structures of a triphenylene-derived discotic liquid crystal (LC) hexa-n-octoxyl-triphenylene (C8HET) were studied using the combined techniques of differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), wide angle X-ray diffraction (WAXD), selected area electron diffraction (SAED) and polarized light microscopy (PLM). One-dimensional (1D) powder WAXD results at different temperatures coupled with DSC and PLM observations revealed that the C8HET compound possessed an LC phase and three different crystalline (K3, K2 and K1) phases below the isotropic (I) melt. The I (?) LC phase transition was thermodynamically reversible and independent of the heating and cooling rates. The development and experimental observation of the three crystalline phases relied on different thermal histories. Among the three crystalline phases in C8HET, the K3 phase is the most stable phase, while the K2 and K1 phases are metastable. Note that the K1 phase only formed via a quenching process. On the basis of structure sensitive diffraction experiments such as 2D WAXD of oriented samples and SAED of single crystals, detailed structures and molecular packings of these four ordered phases were identified. The LC phase exhibited a hexagonal columnar phase with 2D lattice dimensions of a = b = 2.38 nm andγ= 120°. All the three crystalline phases possess monoclinic unit cells, yet theγangle is not 90°in the cases of the K2 and the K3 phases, while in the case of the K1 phase theαangle is not 90°.
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