Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jan 6, 2026

An Electrochemical Cholesteric Liquid Crystalline Device for Quick and Low-Voltage Color Modulation
Published on: February 27, 2019
Manipulation of cholesteric liquid crystal phase behavior and molecular assembly by molecular chirality
1School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Materials Genome Initiative Center, and Key Laboratory of Scientific and Engineering Computing of Ministry of Education, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, 200240, China.
Abstract:
Molecular simulation is used to study the effect of molecular chirality on liquid crystalline phase transition and molecular assembly behavior. Based on a flexible chain (FCh) model with helical arrangement of side beads, the phase behavior of FCh models with various molecular chiralities are studied as functions of pressure (or density). By modifying the molecular chirality of FCh, we can manipulate the relative stability of the nematic and cholesteric phases continuously; and we found that increasing molecular chirality may destabilize cholesteric order due to the effective reduction of chiral interactions. A semismectic phase is identified in the high-density region, in which the two-dimensional fluid layers overlap due to shift alignment formed by FCh particles. The global phase diagram of the FCh model is constructed and the potential energy surface is calculated to elucidate the formation of cholesteric phase in terms of two-body interactions.
Related Concept Videos
Chirality in Nature
Chirality
Chiral objects exhibit a sense of handedness when they interact with another chiral object. For example, our left foot can only fit in the left shoe and not in the right shoe. Achiral objects — objects that have...
Prochirality
Molecules with Multiple Chiral Centers
Properties of Enantiomers and Optical Activity
Stereoisomerism of Cyclic Compounds

