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Revealing Dynamic Processes of Materials in Liquids Using Liquid Cell Transmission Electron Microscopy
Published on: December 20, 2012
A ferroelectric liquid crystal conglomerate composed of racemic molecules
1Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry and Ferroelectric Liquid Crystal Materials Research Center, University of Colorado, Boulder, CO 80309-0215, USA. Department of Physics and Ferroelectric Liquid Crystal Materials Research Center, University.
Abstract:
We describe the design and synthesis of a ferroelectric liquid crystal composed of racemic molecules. The ferroelectric polarization results from spontaneous polar symmetry breaking in a fluid smectic. The ferroelectric phase is also chiral, resulting in the formation of a mixture of macroscopic domains of either handedness at the isotropic-to-liquid crystal phase transition. This smectic liquid crystal is thus a fluid conglomerate. Detailed investigation of the electrooptic and polarization current behavior within individual domains in liquid crystal cells shows the thermodynamically stable structure to be a uniformly tilted smectic bow-phase (banana phase), with all layer pairs homochiral and ferroelectric (SmC(S)P(F)).
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