Does Topology Dictate the Incidence of the Twist-Bend Phase?: Insights Gained from Novel Unsymmetrical Bimesogens

Richard J. Mandle; John W. Goodby

doi:10.1002/chem.201604030

Does Topology Dictate the Incidence of the Twist-Bend Phase? Insights Gained from Novel Unsymmetrical Bimesogens

Richard J. Mandle^*, John W. Goodby

^*Corresponding author for this work

Chemistry

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

Abstract

We prepared a significant number of unsymmetrical liquid-crystalline dimers that exhibit the twist-bend nematic phase; a state of matter that exhibits spontaneous breaking of mirror symmetry and, for some materials, a microsecond electrooptic response. A number of novel unsymmetrical bimesogens were synthesized and in comparing their thermal behaviour to previous literature examples, we have uncovered an unexpected relationship between the thermal stability of the nematic and N_TB phases. This relationship demonstrates that molecular shape dictates the incidence of this fascinating phase of matter and leads us to speculate as to the existence of “twist-bend nematic phases” on length scales beyond those of the molecule.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	18456-18464
Number of pages	9
Journal	Chemistry : A European Journal
Volume	22
Issue number	51
Early online date	12 Dec 2016
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1002/chem.201604030
Publication status	Published - 19 Dec 2016

Bibliographical note

Keywords

chirality
liquid crystals
molecular shape
soft matter
symmetry

Access to Document

10.1002/chem.201604030

Does Topology Dictate the Incidence of the Twist-Bend Phase?Insights Gained from Novel Unsymmetrical Bimesogens
© 2016 The Authors
Final published version, 5.24 MBLicence: CC BY

Cite this

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abstract = "We prepared a significant number of unsymmetrical liquid-crystalline dimers that exhibit the twist-bend nematic phase; a state of matter that exhibits spontaneous breaking of mirror symmetry and, for some materials, a microsecond electrooptic response. A number of novel unsymmetrical bimesogens were synthesized and in comparing their thermal behaviour to previous literature examples, we have uncovered an unexpected relationship between the thermal stability of the nematic and NTB phases. This relationship demonstrates that molecular shape dictates the incidence of this fascinating phase of matter and leads us to speculate as to the existence of “twist-bend nematic phases” on length scales beyond those of the molecule.",

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AB - We prepared a significant number of unsymmetrical liquid-crystalline dimers that exhibit the twist-bend nematic phase; a state of matter that exhibits spontaneous breaking of mirror symmetry and, for some materials, a microsecond electrooptic response. A number of novel unsymmetrical bimesogens were synthesized and in comparing their thermal behaviour to previous literature examples, we have uncovered an unexpected relationship between the thermal stability of the nematic and NTB phases. This relationship demonstrates that molecular shape dictates the incidence of this fascinating phase of matter and leads us to speculate as to the existence of “twist-bend nematic phases” on length scales beyond those of the molecule.

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