Mesomorphism from Bent-Core Based Ionic Dendritic Macromolecules

A wide variety of ionic dendritic macromolecules based on bent-shaped structures have been synthesized and fully characterized. Regular polypropyleneimine dendrimers (PPI) of different generations and a random hyperbranched polymer (PEI) were selected as dendritic cores. Different bent-core structures derived from the 3,4′-biphenyl angular core with 5 or 6 aromatic rings as well as short and long terminal chains and spacers have been used for this study. The bent-core structure acts as strong driving force for the supramolecular arrangement of this type of macromolecules. All of the ionic dendritic polymers prepared show mesogenic behavior over broad temperature ranges, even if the carboxylic acid precursors were not mesomorphous. An extensive chemical structure-supramolecular organization relationship has been proposed for first time for this kind of bent-core dendrimer. Two types of supramolecular packing with lamellar and columnar order have been proposed on the basis of polarizing optical microscopy, differential scanning calorimetry, and X-ray diffraction. Additionally, fibers that present anisotropic optical behavior can be drawn from the materials. These results open new and stimulating possibilities for both bent-core based and dendritic supramolecular systems, with interest in basic and applied supramolecular chemistry and materials science scenarios

Janus-Type Dendromesogens: A Tool to Control the Nanosegregation and Polar Organization of Bent-Core Structures

Several first- or second-generation Janus-type codendrimers that combine promesogenic bent-core and rodlike molecular segments have been synthesized by the versatile CuAAC reaction and the materials have been characterized by POM, DSC, XRD, and SHG studies. Depending on the ratio between the number of rod- and bent-core units, these compounds form mesophases ranging from nematic to a complex polar smectic mesophase in which the two types of mesogenic moieties are segregated on a nanometric scale. In the case of a 1:1 bent/rod ratio, the materials form ferroelectric mesophases and the macroscopic polarization is stable in the absence of an applied electric field. The appearance of the different mesophases is explained in terms of the relative values of the transverse areas of the mesogenic cores

Advances on the investigation of landslides by space-borne synthetic aperture radar interferometry

Landslides are destructive geohazards to people and infrastructure, resulting in hundreds of deaths and billions of dollars of damage every year. Therefore, mapping the rate of deformation of such geohazards and understanding their mechanics is of paramount importance to mitigate the resulting impacts and properly manage the associated risks. In this paper, the main outcomes relevant to the joint European Space Agency (ESA) and the Chinese Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST) Dragon-5 initiative cooperation project ID 59,339 “Earth observation for seismic hazard assessment and landslide early warning system” are reported. The primary goals of the project are to further develop advanced SAR/InSAR and optical techniques to investigate seismic hazards and risks, detect potential landslides in wide regions, and demonstrate EO-based landslide early warning system over selected landslides. This work only focuses on the landslide hazard content of the project, and thus, in order to achieve these objectives, the following tasks were developed up to now: a) a procedure for phase unwrapping errors and tropospheric delay correction; b) an improvement of a cross-platform SAR offset tracking method for the retrieval of long-term ground displacements; c) the application of polarimetric SAR interferometry (PolInSAR) to increase the number and quality of monitoring points in landslide-prone areas; d) the semiautomatic mapping and preliminary classification of active displacement areas on wide regions; e) the modeling and identification of landslides in order to identify triggering factors or predict future displacements; and f) the application of an InSAR-based landslide early warning system on a selected site. The achieved results, which mainly focus on specific sensitive regions, provide essential assets for planning present and future scientific activities devoted to identifying, mapping, characterizing, monitoring and predicting landslides, as well as for the implementation of early warning systems.</p