Abstract
We report the synthesis and characterisation of a family of cyanobiphenyl liquid crystals with varying alkyl chain length and a carbosilane (1,1,3,3-tetramethyldisilabutane) terminal group. These materials exhibit significant reductions in melting point compared to the analogous alkoxycyanobiphenyls and related siloxanes. X-ray scattering studies demonstrate that the carbosilane unit affords control over the SmA layer structure similar to that reported for other bulky terminal units. We demonstrate a single pixel ion-doped SmA scattering device utilising a single carbosilane terminated cyanobiphenyl that is capable of operating at room temperature with a temperature range of over 80 °C.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 714-718 |
| Number of pages | 5 |
| Journal | Journal of Materials Chemistry C |
| Volume | 9 |
| Issue number | 2 |
| Early online date | 8 Dec 2020 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | E-pub ahead of print - 8 Dec 2020 |
Bibliographical note
Funding Information:The authors wish to thank the EPSRC for funding through grants EP/M020584/1 and EP/K039660/1. LF acknowledges funding by the Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior, Brazil (CAPES), finance code 001. Computational work was undertaken using the ARC4 machine, part of the High Performance Computing facilities at the University of Leeds, UK.
Publisher Copyright:
© The Royal Society of Chemistry.
Copyright:
Copyright 2021 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.