Intrinsically chiral ferronematic liquid crystals: an inversion of the helical twist sense at the chiral nematic – chiral ferronematic phase transition.

Pociecha, Damian; Walker, Rebecca; Cruickshank, Ewan; Szydlowska, Jadwiga; Rybak, Paulina; Makal, Anna; Matraszek, Joanna; Wolska, Joanna M.; Storey, John M.D.; Imrie, Corrie T.; Gorecka, Ewa

Abstract

Strongly dipolar mesogenic compounds with a chiral center located in a lateral alkyl chain were synthesized, and shown to form the ferroelectric nematic phase. The presence of molecular chirality induced a helical structure in both the N* and NF* phases, but with opposite helix sense in the two phases. The relaxation frequency of the polar fluctuations is only weakly affected by helical structure, it was found to be slightly lower for the chiral NF* phase than for its achiral, non-branched counterpart with the same lateral chain length.

Citation

POCIECHA, D., WALKER, R., CRUICKSHANK, E., SZYDLOWSKA, J., RYBAK, P., MAKAL, A., MATRASZEK, J., WOLSKA, J.M., STOREY, J.M.D., IMRIE, C.T. and GORECKA, E. 2022. Intrinsically chiral ferronematic liquid crystals: an inversion of the helical twist sense at the chiral nematic – chiral ferronematic phase transition. Journal of molecular liquids (online), 361, article 119532. Available from: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.molliq.2022.119532

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: May 31, 2022
• Online Publication Date: Jun 11, 2022
• Publication Date: 2022-09
• Deposit Date: Aug 17, 2023
• Publicly Available Date: Aug 21, 2023
• Journal: Journal of Molecular Liquids
• Print ISSN: 0167-7322
• Electronic ISSN: 1873-3166
• Publisher: Elsevier
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 361
• Article Number: 119532
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.molliq.2022.119532
• Keywords: Nematic; Ferroelectric; Chirality
• Public URL: https://rgu-repository.worktribe.com/output/2043860
• Additional Information: This article has been published with separate supporting information. This supporting information has been incorporated into a single file on this repository and can be found at the end of the file associated with this output.