Journal
SOFT MATTER
Volume 10, Issue 46, Pages 9318-9323Publisher
ROYAL SOC CHEMISTRY
DOI: 10.1039/c4sm02173h
Keywords
-
Categories
Funding
- Ateneo di Padova
- Merck Chemicals Ltd for a scholarship (PhD School in Materials Science and Engineering of Padova University)
Ask authors/readers for more resources
It has been found that bent-shaped achiral molecules can form a liquid crystal phase, called the Twist-Bend Nematic (N-TB), which is locally polar and spontaneously twisted having a tilted director, with a conglomerate of degenerate chiral domains with opposite handedness and pitch of a few molecular lengths. Here, using a major extension of the Maier-Saupe molecular field theory, we can describe the transition from the nematic (N) to the N-TB phase. We provide a consistent picture of the structural and elastic properties in the two phases, as a function of the molecular bend angle, and show that on approaching the transition there is a gradual softening of the bend mode in the N phase. This points to the crucial role of the molecular shape for the formation of modulated nematic phases and their behaviour.
Authors
I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.
Reviews
Recommended
No Data Available