STRUCTURAL QUESTIONS ON CRYSTALLINE, COLUMNAR AND CUBIC PHASES OF MESOGENIC BIMETALLIC CARBOXYLATES ANSWERED BY SINGLE-CRYSTAL CRYSTALLOGRAPHY

M. A. CASTRO; M. RUSJAN; R. BAGGIO; D. VEGA; O. E. PIRO; Z. D. CHAIA; R. GÓMEZ; A. FAGNOLA; M. A. PERSELLO; B. HEINRICH,; B. DONNIO; D. GUILLON; F. D. CUKIERNIK

Lake Arrowhead, CA, USA

Congreso; 9th International Symposium on Metallomesogens; 2005

Single crystal crystallography of mesogens or related non-mesogenic analogues have been used in the past in order to provide structural information useful for suggesting suitable models of molecular structure and intermolecular organization in the mesophase. These studies allowed to know molecular lengths (correlated to characteristic distances in N, S or Col mesophases), molecular conformations or intermolecular interactions (monomeric vs dimeric alternatives, aggregation behavior), interatomic distances and angles (used sometimes as reference for EXAFS studies), etc. We report herein three recent crystallographic studies we performed on bimetallic carboxylates, and explain the way these results have help us to understand some structural features of such mesogenic compounds, either by validating the models previously suggested or by showing completely different pictures.