Spontaneous chirality through mixing achiral components: A twist-bend nematic phase driven by hydrogen-bonding between unlike components

R. Walker, D. Pociecha, J. P. Abberley, A. Martinez-Felipe, D. A. Paterson, E. Forsyth, G. B. Lawrence, P. A. Henderson, J. M. D. Storey, E. Gorecka, C. T. Imrie* (Corresponding Author)

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

102 Citations (Scopus)
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Abstract

The spontaneous formation of a chiral phase via molecular recognition in a system consisting of achiral components is reported. Specifically, the liquid crystalline behaviour of two molecular complexes assembled by hydrogen bonding between a stilbazole-based template and alkoxybenzoic acids has been characterised. The complexes exhibit the heliconical twist-bend nematic phase (NTB) over a broad temperature range despite the hydrogen-bond acceptor not being liquid crystalline and the donor exhbiting the conventional achiral nematic phase.
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)3383-3386
Number of pages4
JournalChemical Communications
Volume54
Issue number27
Early online date9 Mar 2018
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 7 Apr 2018

Bibliographical note

Acknowledgments: The work was supported by the National Science Centre (Poland) under the grant no. 2016/22/A/ST5/00319. RW gratefully acknowledges the Carnegie Trust for the Universities of Scotland for funding the award of a PhD scholarship.

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