Amphiphilic Character and Liquid Crystallinity

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Abstract
The main families of compounds able to produce lyotropic or thermotropic smectic and columnar mesophases have been presented. Their molecules have been considered as being formed of two distinct parts, incompatible with one another, covalently bonded, but suitably separated in space. Their liquid crystalline structures have then been described in succession and analyzed in terms of microphase segregation. The common feature of the smectic and columnar ordering turns out to be the creation of fairly sharp interfaces between segregation microdomains. The amphiphilic character of the molecules seems, therefore, to play a predominant part in the establishment of both the smectic and columnar ordering.