On some liquid crystals made of banana-shaped molecules and their mixtures with rod-like molecules

Soft matter results from relatively weak interparticle interactions. Liquid crystals exhibit the largest variety of soft matter, and have fascinating physical properties and technological applications. de Gennes showed that the seemingly complex properties are often amenable to phenomenological descriptions, based on the underlying macroscopic symmetry of the medium. The latter ultimately depends on subtle intermolecular interactions, as exemplified by the discoveries of new types of liquid crystals made of banana-shaped (or bent-core (BC)) molecules. In this article, we review some aspects of these liquid crystals, with an emphasis on our own contributions. These include a simplified theoretical description of the most frequently observed B6-B1-B2 sequence of phases in homologous series of compounds with BC molecules, experimental studies on induced phases in mixtures of compounds with BC and rod-like molecules and on some novel properties exhibited in the nematic phase of such mixtures.