Liquid crystal dimers and the twist-bend nematic phase: On the role of spacers and terminal alkyl chains

2020 ◽  
Vol 320 ◽  
pp. 114391 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ewan Forsyth ◽  
Daniel A. Paterson ◽  
Ewan Cruickshank ◽  
Grant J. Strachan ◽  
Ewa Gorecka ◽  
...  
2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Niamh Mac Fhionnlaoich ◽  
Stephen Schrettl ◽  
Nicholas B. Tito ◽  
Ye Yang ◽  
Malavika Nair ◽  
...  

The arrangement of nanoscale building blocks into patterns with microscale periodicity is challenging to achieve via self-assembly processes. Here, we report on the phase transition-driven collective assembly of gold nanoparticles in a thermotropic liquid crystal. A temperature-induced transition from the isotropic to the nematic phase leads to the assembly of individual nanometre-sized particles into arrays of micrometre-sized aggregates, whose size and characteristic spacing can be tuned by varying the cooling rate. This fully reversible process offers hierarchical control over structural order on the molecular, nanoscopic, and microscopic level and is an interesting model system for the programmable patterning of nanocomposites with access to micrometre-sized periodicities.


Crystals ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (7) ◽  
pp. 831
Author(s):  
Davide Revignas ◽  
Alberta Ferrarini

In the past decade, much evidence has been provided for an unusually low cost for bend deformations in the nematic phase of bent-core mesogens and bimesogens (liquid crystal dimers) having a bent shape on average. Recently, an analogous effect was observed for the splay mode of bent-core mesogens with an acute apical angle. Here, we present a systematic computational investigation of the Frank elastic constants of nematics made of V-shaped particles, with bend angles ranging from acute to obtuse. We show that by tuning this angle, the elastic behavior switches from bend dominated (K33>K11) to splay dominated (K11>K33), with anomalously low values of the splay and the bend constant, respectively. This is related to a change in the shape polarity of particles, which is associated with the emergence of polar order, longitudinal for splay and transversal for bend deformations. Crucial to this study is the use of a recently developed microscopic elastic theory, able to account for the interplay of mesogen morphology and director deformations.


2007 ◽  
Vol 441 (4-6) ◽  
pp. 245-249 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anand Yethiraj ◽  
E. Elliott Burnell ◽  
Ronald Y. Dong
Keyword(s):  

2011 ◽  
Vol 84 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Chandra Shekhar Pati Tripathi ◽  
Patricia Losada-Pérez ◽  
Christ Glorieux ◽  
Alexandra Kohlmeier ◽  
Maria-Gabriela Tamba ◽  
...  

2015 ◽  
Vol 126 ◽  
pp. 374-380 ◽  
Author(s):  
Azahara Rata-Aguilar ◽  
Nathaly Segovia-Ramos ◽  
Ana Belén Jódar-Reyes ◽  
Víctor Ramos-Pérez ◽  
Salvador Borrós ◽  
...  

1990 ◽  
Vol 45 (7) ◽  
pp. 1084-1090 ◽  
Author(s):  
Klaus Praefcke ◽  
Bernd Kohne ◽  
Andreas Eckert ◽  
Joachim Hempel

Six S,S-dialkyl acetals 2a-f of inosose (1), tripodal in structure, have been synthesized, characterized and investigated by optical microscopy and differential scanning calorimetry (d.s.c.). The four S,S-acetals 2c-f with sufficiently long alkyl chains are thermotropic liquid crystalline; 2 e and 2 f are even dithermomesomorphic. Each of these four inosose derivatives 2c-f exhibits monotropically a most likely cubic mesophase (MI); in addition 2e and 2f show enantiotropically a hexagonal mesophase (Hx) with a non-covalent, supramolecular H-bridge architecture. Whereas the nature of the optically isotropic mesophase MI needs further clarification the stable high temperature mesophase Hx of 2 e and 2 f has been established by a miscibility test using a sugar S,S-dialkyl acetal also tripodal in structure and with a Hx phase proved by X-ray diffraction, but in contrast to 2 with an acyclic hydrophilic part. Similarities of structural features between the Hx-phases of 2e and 2f as well as of other thermotropic and lyotropic liquid crystal systems are discussed briefly.


BioResources ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 15 (2) ◽  
pp. 4591-4635
Author(s):  
Martin A. Hubbe ◽  
Douglas S. McLean ◽  
Karen R. Stack ◽  
Xiaomin Lu ◽  
Anders Strand ◽  
...  

This review article considers the role of fatty acids and the mutual association of their long-chain (e.g. C18) alkyl and alkenyl groups in some important aspects of papermaking. In particular, published findings suggest that interactions involving fatty acids present as condensed monolayer films can play a controlling role in pitch deposition problems. Self-association among the tails of fatty acids and their soaps also helps to explain some puzzling aspects of hydrophobic sizing of paper. When fatty acids and their soaps are present as monolayers in papermaking systems, the pH values associated with their dissociation, i.e. their pKa values, tend to be strongly shifted. Mutual association also appears to favor non-equilibrium multilayer structures that are tacky and insoluble, possibly serving as a nucleus for deposition of wood extractives, such, as resins and triglyceride fats, in pulp and paper systems.


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