Abstract
We synthesized the liquid crystal dimer and trimer members of a series of flexible linear oligomers and characterized their microscopic and nanoscopic properties using resonant soft X-ray scattering and a number of other experimental techniques. On the microscopic scale, the twist-bend phases of the dimer and trimer appear essentially identical. However, while the liquid crystal dimer exhibits a temperature-dependent variation of its twist-bend helical pitch varying from 100 to 170 Å on heating, the trimer exhibits an essentially temperature-independent pitch of 66 Å, significantly shorter than those reported for other twist-bend forming materials in the literature. We attribute this to a specific combination of intrinsic conformational bend of the trimer molecules and a sterically favorable intercalation of the trimers over a commensurate fraction (two-thirds) of the molecular length. We develop a geometric model of the twist-bend phase for these materials with the molecules arranging into helical chain structures, and we fully determine their respective geometric parameters.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 10698-10704 |
| Number of pages | 7 |
| Journal | Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America |
| Volume | 116 |
| Issue number | 22 |
| Early online date | 14 May 2019 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - 28 May 2019 |
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Keywords
- Liquid crystal
- Twist-bend nematic
- trimer
- Heliconical structure
- RSoXS
- Trimer
- Heliconical
- Twist–bend nematic
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- General
Cite this
Distinct differences in the nanoscale behaviors of the twist-bend liquid crystal phase of a flexible linear trimer and homologous dimer. / Tuchband, Michael R; Paterson, Daniel A; Salamończyk, Mirosław; Norman, Victoria A; Scarbrough, Alyssa N; Forsyth, Ewan; Garcia, Edgardo; Wang, Cheng; Storey, John M D; Walba, David M; Sprunt, Samuel; Jákli, Antal; Zhu, Chenhui; Imrie, Corrie T; Clark, Noel A.
In: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, Vol. 116, No. 22, 28.05.2019, p. 10698-10704.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article
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TY - JOUR
T1 - Distinct differences in the nanoscale behaviors of the twist-bend liquid crystal phase of a flexible linear trimer and homologous dimer
AU - Tuchband, Michael R
AU - Paterson, Daniel A
AU - Salamończyk, Mirosław
AU - Norman, Victoria A
AU - Scarbrough, Alyssa N
AU - Forsyth, Ewan
AU - Garcia, Edgardo
AU - Wang, Cheng
AU - Storey, John M D
AU - Walba, David M
AU - Sprunt, Samuel
AU - Jákli, Antal
AU - Zhu, Chenhui
AU - Imrie, Corrie T
AU - Clark, Noel A
N1 - This work was supported by National Science Foundation Materials Research Science and Engineering Center Grant DMR-1420736 and Grant DMR-1307674. M.R.T. acknowledges support from the Advanced Light Source Doctoral Fellowship in Residence offered by Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. M.S. acknowledges the support of the US National Science Foundation I2CAM International Materials Institute Award, Grant DMR-1411344. We acknowledge use of beamlines 11.0.1.2 and 7.3.3. of the Advanced Light Source supported by the Director of the Office of Science, Office of Basic Energy Sciences, of the US Department of Energy under Contract DE-AC02-05CH11231.
PY - 2019/5/28
Y1 - 2019/5/28
N2 - We synthesized the liquid crystal dimer and trimer members of a series of flexible linear oligomers and characterized their microscopic and nanoscopic properties using resonant soft X-ray scattering and a number of other experimental techniques. On the microscopic scale, the twist-bend phases of the dimer and trimer appear essentially identical. However, while the liquid crystal dimer exhibits a temperature-dependent variation of its twist-bend helical pitch varying from 100 to 170 Å on heating, the trimer exhibits an essentially temperature-independent pitch of 66 Å, significantly shorter than those reported for other twist-bend forming materials in the literature. We attribute this to a specific combination of intrinsic conformational bend of the trimer molecules and a sterically favorable intercalation of the trimers over a commensurate fraction (two-thirds) of the molecular length. We develop a geometric model of the twist-bend phase for these materials with the molecules arranging into helical chain structures, and we fully determine their respective geometric parameters.
AB - We synthesized the liquid crystal dimer and trimer members of a series of flexible linear oligomers and characterized their microscopic and nanoscopic properties using resonant soft X-ray scattering and a number of other experimental techniques. On the microscopic scale, the twist-bend phases of the dimer and trimer appear essentially identical. However, while the liquid crystal dimer exhibits a temperature-dependent variation of its twist-bend helical pitch varying from 100 to 170 Å on heating, the trimer exhibits an essentially temperature-independent pitch of 66 Å, significantly shorter than those reported for other twist-bend forming materials in the literature. We attribute this to a specific combination of intrinsic conformational bend of the trimer molecules and a sterically favorable intercalation of the trimers over a commensurate fraction (two-thirds) of the molecular length. We develop a geometric model of the twist-bend phase for these materials with the molecules arranging into helical chain structures, and we fully determine their respective geometric parameters.
KW - Liquid crystal
KW - Twist-bend nematic
KW - trimer
KW - Heliconical structure
KW - RSoXS
KW - Trimer
KW - Heliconical
KW - Twist–bend nematic
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85066292167&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1073/pnas.1821372116
DO - 10.1073/pnas.1821372116
M3 - Article
VL - 116
SP - 10698
EP - 10704
JO - PNAS
JF - PNAS
SN - 0027-8424
IS - 22
ER -