The synthesis is reported for a main chain polymer in which the repeat units are 2,3,6,7,10,11-hexaphenyltriphenylene moieties linked through flexible dodecyl chains. In compositions with a series of 2,3,6,7,10,11-hexakis(alkoxy)triphenylenes (HATn) this new polymer forms stable hexagonal columnar liquid crystal phases. These are investigated in detail using optical polarised microscopy (OPM), differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) and X-ray diffraction (XRD). In these mixtures, suppression of crystallisation and enhancement of the clearing temperatures leads to very wide liquid crystal ranges: much wider than those for the HATn materials on their own. For the longer chain HATn compounds (n = 12–16) a columnar rectangular phase is also observed. The enhancement of the liquid crystal phase range is attributed to stabilising complementary polytopic interactions between the planar aromatic moieties.

This review covers the range of cholesterol-based anchors and tethers and the ways in which they are being used. These cholesterol conjugates provide us with a very flexible ‘tool-box’ that can be used to tether phospholipid bilayers to surfaces, to join bilayers together (bilayer-to-bilayer, bilayer-to-vesicle, vesicle-to-vesicle, etc.) or to anchor molecules, biomolecules, macromolecules or particulate species to the surface of the bilayer. Model biomembranes tethered to a solid support provide a stable platform for addressing membrane components in vitro using force field and spectroscopic methods and since these membranes generally remain fluid and retain much of their biological activity, solid-supported membranes can also be use to study aspects of membrane biology and biochemistry. Potential medical applications are developing out of our ability to anchor ‘markers’ and antibodies to phospholipid vesicles. Compared to anchors in which the anchoring group is a phospholipid (or phospholipid-like) moiety, cholesterol-based anchors are generally easier to make and purify but the anchoring is less strong and this can be an issue when the ‘payload’ is large and water-soluble. In the case of nucleic acid functionalised systems this problem has been addressed by anchoring each oligonucleotide through two cholesteryl end-groups.

Model diradical dications have been synthesised which have the 4,4″-through metaterphenyl spin-coupling pathway found in arylamine high-spin polymers. In the model triplet diradical dication derived by a two-electron oxidation of N,N,N″,N″-tetrakis(4-tert-butyl-2-methoxyphenyl)-3,3″-dimethoxy[1,1′;3′,1″]terphenyl-4,4″-diamine the separation between the triplet and singlet states was found to be 0.083 kcal mol−1. This value is close to that predicted on the basis that the energy difference should be proportional to the product of the spin densities in the ‘common’ ring (the ring in which the two spin densities overlap). This is an important principle in the design of new high-spin polymers.

The synthesis is reported for a main chain polymer in which the repeat units are 2,3,6,7,10,11-hexaphenyltriphenylene moieties linked through flexible dodecyl chains. In compositions with a series of 2,3,6,7,10,11-hexakis(alkoxy)triphenylenes (HATn) this new polymer forms stable hexagonal columnar liquid crystal phases. These are investigated in detail using optical polarised microscopy (OPM), differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) and X-ray diffraction (XRD). In these mixtures, suppression of crystallisation and enhancement of the clearing temperatures leads to very wide liquid crystal ranges: much wider than those for the HATn materials on their own. For the longer chain HATn compounds (n = 12–16) a columnar rectangular phase is also observed. The enhancement of the liquid crystal phase range is attributed to stabilising complementary polytopic interactions between the planar aromatic moieties.

Model diradical dications have been synthesised which have the 4,4″-through metaterphenyl spin-coupling pathway found in arylamine high-spin polymers. In the model triplet diradical dication derived by a two-electron oxidation of N,N,N″,N″-tetrakis(4-tert-butyl-2-methoxyphenyl)-3,3″-dimethoxy[1,1′;3′,1″]terphenyl-4,4″-diamine the separation between the triplet and singlet states was found to be 0.083 kcal mol−1. This value is close to that predicted on the basis that the energy difference should be proportional to the product of the spin densities in the ‘common’ ring (the ring in which the two spin densities overlap). This is an important principle in the design of new high-spin polymers.