Abstract
The syntheses and characterisation of the first ten homologues of the 1-(4-cyanobiphenyl-4-yl)-6-(4-alkylanilinebenzylidene-4-oxy)hexanes (CB6O.m) are reported. All ten members of the series exhibit an enantiotropic nematic, N, phase, and a monotropic twist-bend nematic, N-TB, phase. Only CB6O.10 shows a smectic phase. The assignment of both nematic phases was confirmed using X-ray diffraction. For short chain lengths (m = 1-6) the local packing in both nematic phases is an intercalated arrangement, for intermediate chain lengths a frustrated local structure is seen and for the longest chain length, a bilayer arrangement is observed. This change in the local structure on increasing m has no apparent effect on the stability of either nematic phase, and TNTBN and T-NI show a regular dependence on m. Specifically, TNTBN and T-NI decrease on increasing m and superimposed upon this is a weak odd-even effect in which the odd members show the higher values. T-NI decreases more rapidly than TNTBN on increasing m such that the ratio TNTBN/T-NI increases. The lower temperature liquid crystal phase shown by 1-(4-cyanobiphenyl-4-yloxy)-5-(4-butylanilinebenzylidene-4-oxy)pentane (CBO5O.4) is reassigned as a twist-bend nematic phase. The transitional properties of the CB6O.m, CB6O.Om and CBO5O.m series are compared.
Original language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | 3188-3197 |
Number of pages | 10 |
Journal | Soft matter |
Volume | 15 |
Early online date | 11 Mar 2019 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - 21 Apr 2019 |
Bibliographical note
EG and DP acknowledge the support of the National Science Centre (Poland): (Grant Number 2016/22/A/ST5/00319). RW gratefully acknowledges The Carnegie Trust for the Universities of Scotland for funding the award of a PhD scholarship.Keywords
- LIQUID-CRYSTAL DIMERS
- TRANSITIONAL PROPERTIES
- MESOMORPHIC BEHAVIOR
- MESOPHASE
- OLIGOMERS
- DEPENDENCE
- COMPOUND
- MIXTURES
- GEOMETRY
- TRIMERS