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Updated: Mar 2, 2026

High-Contrast and Fast Photorheological Switching of a Twist-Bend Nematic Liquid Crystal
Published on: October 31, 2019
Room-Temperature Oligomeric Discotic Nematic Liquid Crystals over a Wide Temperature Range: Structure-Property
Monika Gupta1, Santosh Prasad Gupta1, Subhransu Sekhar Mohapatra2
1Department of Chemical Sciences, Indian Institute of Science Education and Research (IISER) Mohali, Sector-81, Knowledge City, Manauli, 140306, India.
Abstract:
The design and synthesis of three room-temperature discotic nematic (ND ) liquid crystals (LCs) is presented. The LC consists of an azobenzene core attached to which are four pentaalkynylbenzene (PA) units through flexible alkyl spacers. The presence of a short azo linking group provides more disorder in the system, thereby reducing the packing efficiency among the PA units and resulting into the formation of a room-temperature ND phase over a wide temperature range. Dielectric constant and birefringence studies were performed to gain further insights into the physical properties of the mesophase.
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