Pretransitional Clusters in Multicolor Liquid Crystalline Honeycombs

X-shaped tetraphilic molecules consisting of a rod-like core with two hydrogen-bonding terminal groups and two mutually incompatible side-chains A and B form a range of honeycomb-like structures in which the rods act as bricks in the walls of polygonal cylinder cells containing the fluid side-chains. Some of these systems exhibit a 2nd-order transition from the high-temperature mixed (``1-color'') phase to a low-temperature phase in which the side-chains are separated in A and B cells (``2-color''). This is the situation with triangular, rectangular and square honeycombs. Strong pre-transitional 2-color domains formation is observed above the transition temperature. Particularly interesting is the case of the hexagonal honeycomb, where no fully phase-separated ground state can exist. Here the 2-color ``ordered'' phase consists of [A] cells and [A(1/4)B(3/4)] cells. The situation is similar to frustrated ferro- and antiferromagnets on a kagome lattice. Instead of the spins flipping, it is the molecules that undergo 180 degree rotations about the axis of their rod-like cores [Science 331, 1302 (2011)].