Muoniated spin probes in the discotic liquid crystal HHTT: rapid electron spin relaxation in the hexagonal columnar and isotropic phases

Phys Rev E Stat Nonlin Soft Matter Phys. 2013 Jan;87(1):012504. doi: 10.1103/PhysRevE.87.012504. Epub 2013 Jan 22.

Abstract

Avoided level crossing muon spin resonance (ALC-μSR) spectroscopy was used to study radicals produced by the addition of the light hydrogen isotope muonium (Mu) to the discotic liquid crystal (DLC) 2,3,6,7,10,11-hexahexylthiotriphenylene (HHTT). Mu adds to the secondary carbon atoms of HHTT to produce a substituted cyclohexadienyl radical, whose identity was confirmed by comparing the measured hyperfine coupling constants with values obtained from DFT calculations. ALC-μSR spectra were obtained in the isotropic (I), hexagonal columnar (Col(h)), helical (H), and crystalline (Cr) phases. In the I and Col(h) phases the radicals, which are incorporated within the stacks of HHTT molecules as isolated paramagnetic defects, undergo extremely rapid electron spin relaxation, on the order of a hundredfold faster than in the H or Cr phases. The electron spin relaxation rate increases significantly with increasing temperature and appears to be caused by the liquidlike motion within the columns, which modulates the overlap between the π system of the radical and the π systems of the neighboring HHTT molecules, and hence, the hyperfine coupling constants. Rapid electron spin relaxation should occur for any π radical incorporated within the columns of a DLC, which may limit the utility of DLCs for future spin-based technologies.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Anisotropy
  • Computer Simulation
  • Electron Transport
  • Liquid Crystals / chemistry*
  • Mesons*
  • Models, Chemical*
  • Models, Molecular*
  • Phase Transition
  • Spin Labels

Substances

  • Spin Labels