A thermo-birefringence switchable columnar liquid crystalline compound

In the field of columnar liquid crystals, a new type of thermo-optical switching material that shows a birefringence inversion without changing the columnar alignment by controlling the temperature was synthesized. The urea molecules generate one-dimensional linear molecular aggregates using urea-urea intermolecular hydrogen bonding and exhibit rectangular and hexagonal columnar phases. In polarized light optical microscopy, the texture perfectly disappears during the transition between the two columnar phases because it passes through the point where birefringence becomes zero. The inversion mechanism is explained by the conformational change of each molecule in the column. In this study, we propose a new switchable optical material in columnar liquid crystal phases.

Automated summary

A new thermo-optical switching material that demonstrates birefringence inversion without changing columnar alignment by controlling temperature has been synthesized in the field of columnar liquid crystals. The mechanism involves urea molecules forming one-dimensional linear molecular aggregates, which exhibit rectangular and hexagonal columnar phases. The perfect disappearance of texture during the transition between two columnar phases is observed under polarized light optical microscopy.