Selected Publications
D. McKearney, K. Macdonald, Kyle, M.S. Kim, V. E. Williams, D.B. Leznoff “Tuning the Visible Colour of Octahedral Manganese(III) Phthalocyanines via Axial Ligand Exchange” Dalton Trans. 2023, in press.
C. O. Zellman, V.E. Williams “Strategies for promoting discotic nematic phases” Soft Matter 2023, 19 (15), 2705-2709. doi.org/10.1039/D3SM00212H
A. Che, C. O. Zellman, D. Sarkar, S. Trudel-Lachance, J. Espejo, V. K. Michaelis, V. E. Williams, C.-C. Ling “Functional Group Polarity-Modulated Formation of Liquid Crystals of Amphiphilic Cyclodextrins” J. Mater. Chem. C. 2023, 11(12), 4153-4163. doi.org/10.1039/D2TC05024B
D. McKearney, W. Zhou, M. Scollon, T. Furuyama, V. E. Williams, D. B. Leznoff “Decreasing the aggregation and ligand redox potential of metallophthalocyanines through branched ether functionalization” J. Porphyrins Phthalocyanines 2023, 27, 452-462. doi.org/10.1142/S1088424623500141
C. O. Zellman, V.E. Williams “Semirigid Discotic Dimers: Flexible but not Flexible Enough?” Phys. Chem. Chem. Phys. 2023, 25, 1363. link
K. D. Thériault, C. L. Radford, G. P. Nagabhushana, D. T. Hogan, V. E. Williams, T. L. Kelly, T. C. Sutherland “An unusual self-assembling columnar mesogen prepared by tethering a planar naphthalenediimide acceptor to bent phenothiazine donors” Mater. Adv. 2022, 3, 328-36. link
C. O. Zellman, V. E. Williams “Stereochemistry, Conformational Dynamics and the Stability of Liquid Crystal Phases” J. Org. Chem.2021, 86, 15076-15084. link
D. McKearney, R. J. Roberts, D. Mitchell, J. C. F. Cheung V. E. Williams, D. B. Leznoff “Preferential Formation of Side-Pocket-Substituted Zinc Phthalocyanines Emitting Beyond 800 nm” Eur. J. Inorg. Chem. 2021, 2021, 2773-2783. link
C. O. Zellman, D. Vu, V. E. Williams “Adjacent functional group effects in the self-assembly of columnar liquid crystals” Can. J. Chem.2020, 98, 379-85. link
J. Yoshida, K. J. A. Bozek, J. R. Thompson, V. E. Williams “Competing forces in the self-assembly of amide-functionalized discotic mesogens” Soft Matter, 2019, 21, 10102-10105. link
D. F. Ester, D. McKearney, K. Herasymchuk, V. E. Williams “Heterocycle Effects on the Liquid Crystallinity of Terthiophene Analogues” Materials, 2019, 12, 2314-33. link
P.-L. Champagne, D. E. Ester, D. Polan, V. E. Williams, V. Thangadurai, C.-C. Ling "Amphiphilic Cyclodextrin-based Liquid Crystals for Proton Conduction" J. Am. Chem. Soc., 2019, 141, 9217-24. link
D. F. Ester, V. E. Williams “Exploiting Molecular Symmetry Reduction to Enrich Liquid Crystal Phase Diversity” Liq. Cryst. 2019, 46, 1505-16. link
V. E. Williams “Using Art to Communicate Chemistry” in Communication in Chemistry, ACS Symposium Series 2019, 1327, 229-241.
P.-L. Champagne, D. E. Ester, A. Bhattacharya, K. Hofstetter, C. Zellman, S. Bag, H. Yu, S. Trudel, V. K. Michaelis, V. E. Williams, V. Thangadurai, C.-C. Ling “Liquid Crystalline Lithium-ion Electrolytes Derived from Biodegradable Cyclodextrin” J. Mater. Chem. A.2019, 7, 12201-12213. link
D. McKearney, W. Zhou, C. Zellman, V. E. Williams, D. B. Leznoff “Facile tuning of strong near-IR absorption wavelengths in manganese(III) phthalocyanines via axial ligand exchange” Chem. Commun. 2019, 55, 6696-6699. link
D. F. Ester, V.E. Williams “Molecular Symmetry Effects on the Stability of Highly Ordered Smectic Phases” Liq. Cryst., 2019, 46, 76-85. link
P.-L. Champagne, D. Ester, S. Aldosari, V. Williams, C.-C. Ling “Synthesis and Comparison of Mesomorphic Behavior of a Cholesterol-based Liquid Crystal Dimer and Analogous Monomers” Liq. Cryst., 2018, 45, 1164-76. link
E. Voisin, V. E. Williams “The impact of molecular symmetry and shape on the stability of discotic liquid crystals” Can. J. Chem., 2018, 96, 132-138. link
P.-L. Champagne, D. Ester, M. Zeeman, C. Zellman, V.E. Williams, C.-C. Ling “Inverting substitution patterns on amphiphilic cyclodextrins induces unprecedented formation of hexagonal columnar superstructures” J. Mater. Chem. C 2017, 5, 9247-9254. link
J. R. Thompson, V. E. Williams, D. B. Leznoff "The role of hydrogen bonds in facilitating planar alignment of Mn(II) halide 2,6-bis(benzimidazole)pyridine-based complexes" Cryst. Growth Des. 2017, 17, 1180-9. link
P.-L. Champagne, D. Ester, S. Ward, V.E. Williams, C.-C. Ling “A Family of Amphiphilic Cyclodextrin Liquid Crystals Governed by Dipole-Dipole Interactions” ChemPlusChem, 2017 82, 423-432. link
J. R. Thompson, D. Snider, J. E. C. Wren, S. Kroeker, V. E. Williams, D. B. Leznoff “Correlating Structural Features and 207Pb MAS-NMR parameters with stereochemical activity of Pb(II) lone pairs in birefringent Pb[bis(benzimidazole)pyridine] complexes” Eur. J. Inorg. Chem. 2017, 88-98. link
E. Voisin, V. E. Williams “Side chain shuffling: regioselective synthesis of mixed tail discotic mesogens” RSC Advances 2016, 6, 11262-5. link
36. A. D. Bromby, S. N. Keller, K. J. A. Bozek, V. E. Williams, T. C. Sutherland “Pi-Extended Ethynyl 21,23-Dithiaporphyrins: A Synthesis and Comparative Study of Electrochemical, Optical, and Self-Assembling Properties” J. Org. Chem., 2015, 80, 9401-9409. link
K. J. A. Bozek, K. I. Ho, T. Saint-Martin, V. E. Williams “Liquid Crystalline Ester of Dibenzophenazines” Materials, 2015, 8, 270-284. link
J. R. Thompson, M. J. Katz, V. E. Williams, D. B. Leznoff “Structural Design Parameters for Highly Birefringent Coordination Polymers” Inorg. Chem., 2015, 54, 6462-6471. link
K. M. Psutka, J. Williams, J. A. Paquette, O. Calderon, K. J. A. Bozek, V. E. Williams, K. E. Maly “Synthesis of Substituted Dibenz[a,c]anthracenes and an Investigation of Their Liquid-Crystalline Properties” Eur. J. Org. Chem., 2015, 1456-1463. link
K. J. A. Bozek and V.E. Williams “Folded Discotic Dimers” Soft Matter, 2014, 10, 5749-54. link
S. Ward, O. Calderon, P. Zhang, M. Sobchuck, S. Keller, V. E. Williams, C. C. Ling “Investigation into the Role of the Hydrogen Bonding Network in Cyclodextrin-based Liquid Crystals” J. Mater. Chem. C, 2014, 2, 4928-36. link
J. R. Thompson, R. J. Roberts, V.E. Williams, D. B. Leznoff ”Birefringent, emissive coordination polymers incorporating bis(benzimidazole) pyridine as an anisotropic building block” Cryst. Eng. Comm. 2013, 45, 9387-9393. link
J. R. Thompson, J. S Ovens, V.E. Williams, D. B. Leznoff “Supramolecular Assembly of Bis(benzimidazole)pyridine: An Extended Anisotropic Ligand For Highly Birefringent Materials” Chem. Eur. J. 2013, 49, 16572-16578. link
J. A. Paquette, C. J. Yardley, K. M. Psutka, M. A. Cochran, O. Calderon, V. E. Williams, K. E. Maly “Dibenz[a,c]anthracene derivatives exhibiting columnar mesophases over broad temperature ranges” Chem. Commun. 2012, 48, 8210-12. link
M. Rakotomala, M. Katz, E. Voisin, T.C.S. Pace, C. Bohne, V. E. Williams “Photochromic Benzo[g]quinoxalines” Can. J. Chem. 2011,89, 297-302. link
D. Bailey, N. Seifi, V. E. Williams “Steric Effects on [4+4]-Photocycloaddition Reactions Between Complementary Anthracene Derivatives” Dyes Pigm. 2011, 89, 313. link
E. Voisin, E. J. Foster, M. Rakotomalala, V E. Williams “The Effects of Symmetry on the Stability of Columnar Liquid Crystals” Chem. Mater. 2009, 21, 3251-61. link
C. Lavigueur, E. J. Foster, V. E. Williams “Self-Assembly of Discotic Mesogens in Solution and in Liquid Crystalline Phases: Effects of Substituent Position and Hydrogen Bonding.” J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2008, 130, 11791-11800. link
E. Voisin, V. E. Williams “Do Catechol Derivatives Electropolymerize?” Macromolecules 2008, 41, 2994-2997. link
C. Lavigueur, E. J. Foster, V. E. Williams “A simple and inexpensive capillary furnace for variable-temperature X-ray diffraction.” J. Applied Crystallography 2008, 41, 214-216. link
C. Lavigueur, E. J. Foster; V. E. Williams “Modular assembly of elliptical mesogens." Liq. Cryst. 2007, 34, 833-840. link
E. J. Foster, R. B. Jones, C. Lavigueur, V. E. Williams “Structural Factors Controlling the Self-Assembly of Columnar Liquid Crystals.” J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2006, 128, 8569-8574. link
D. Bailey, V. E Williams “Wavelength-Dependent Selectivity in [4 + 4]-Cycloaddition Reactions.” J. Org. Chem. 2006, 71, 5778-5780. link
D. Bailey, J. N. Murphy and V. E. Williams “From enolates to anthraquinones.” Can. J. Chem. 2006, 84, 659-666. link
E. J. Foster, C. Lavigueur, Y.-C. Ke and V. E. Williams “Self-assembly of hydrogen-bonded molecules: discotic and elliptical mesogens” J. Mater. Chem. 2005, 15, 4062-8. link
D. Bailey and V. E. Williams “Complementarity and Bimolecular Photochromism” Chem. Commun. 2005, 2569-71. link
E. J. Foster, J. Babuin, N. Nguyen, V.E. Williams "Synthesis of unsymmetrical dibenzoquinoxaline discotic mesogens" Chem. Commun. 2004, 2052-3. link
D. Bailey and V. E. Williams “An efficient synthesis of substituted anthraquinones and naphthoquinones” Tetrahedron Lett. 2004, 45, 2511-3. link
K. Lau, J. Foster, V. Williams “Synthesis of a hexaalkoxybenzo[b]triphenylene mesogen” Chem. Commun. 2003, 2172-3. link
J. Babuin, J. Foster, V. E. Williams “An investigation of the mesogenic properties of dibenzoquinoxaline derivatives” Tetrahedron Lett.2003, 44, 7003-5. link
F. Haftbaradaran, D. B. Leznoff, V. E. Williams “A strained silver(I) coordination polymer of 1,4-diazatriphenylene” Dalton Trans. 2003, 11, 2105. link