Control of free volume through size exclusion in the formation of smectic C phases for display applications

TY - JOUR

T1 - Control of free volume through size exclusion in the formation of smectic C phases for display applications

AU - Mandle, R. J.

AU - Davis, E. J.

AU - Sarju, J. P.

AU - Stock, N.

AU - Cooke, M. S.

AU - Lobato, S. A.

AU - Cowling, S. J.

AU - Goodby, J. W.

PY - 2015/5/7

Y1 - 2015/5/7

N2 - Ferroelectric liquid crystals are of interest in display devices because of their bistable operation and fast response times. However, they have not reached their potential for a number of reasons, low tilt angle and high birefringence being two of them. Although low birefringence can be achieved by incorporation of carbocyclic rings into the molecular structures of the materials this often lowers the occurrence of tilted phases, and additionally a high tilt angle is often very difficult to engineer. In this article we attempt to resolve these issues and demonstrate that through the incorporation a bulky terminal group attached to an external aliphatic chain in the molecular design, it is possible via size exclusion to achieve high tilt angles. We explore the conformational landscape of these materials with a combination of molecular modelling and NOE enhancements in 1H NMR.

AB - Ferroelectric liquid crystals are of interest in display devices because of their bistable operation and fast response times. However, they have not reached their potential for a number of reasons, low tilt angle and high birefringence being two of them. Although low birefringence can be achieved by incorporation of carbocyclic rings into the molecular structures of the materials this often lowers the occurrence of tilted phases, and additionally a high tilt angle is often very difficult to engineer. In this article we attempt to resolve these issues and demonstrate that through the incorporation a bulky terminal group attached to an external aliphatic chain in the molecular design, it is possible via size exclusion to achieve high tilt angles. We explore the conformational landscape of these materials with a combination of molecular modelling and NOE enhancements in 1H NMR.

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84928692365&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1039/c5tc00552c

DO - 10.1039/c5tc00552c

M3 - Article

AN - SCOPUS:84928692365

VL - 3

SP - 4333

EP - 4344

JO - Journal of Materials Chemistry C

JF - Journal of Materials Chemistry C

SN - 2050-7526

IS - 17

ER -