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. 2019 Oct 17;25(58):13329-13335.
doi: 10.1002/chem.201903014. Epub 2019 Sep 5.

The Chiral Twist-Bend Nematic Phase (N*TB )

Rebecca Walker  1 , Damian Pociecha  2 , John M D Storey  1 , Ewa Gorecka  2 , Corrie T Imrie  1
Affiliations

The Chiral Twist-Bend Nematic Phase (N*TB )

Rebecca Walker et al. Chemistry. .

Abstract

The twist-bend nematic, NTB , phase has been observed for chiral materials in which chirality is introduced through a branched 2-methylbutyl terminal tail. The chiral twist-bend nematic phase, N*TB , is completely miscible with the NTB phase of the standard achiral material, CB6OCB. The N*TB phase exhibits optical textures with lower birefringence than those observed for the achiral NTB phase, suggesting an additional mechanism of averaging molecular orientations. The N*-N*TB transition temperatures for the chiral materials are higher than the NTB -N transition temperatures seen for the corresponding racemic materials. This suggests the double degeneracy of helical twist sense in the N T B * phase is removed by the intrinsic molecular chirality. A square lattice pattern is observed in the N* phase over a temperature range of several degrees above the N*TB -N phase transition, which may be attributed to a non-monotonic dependence of the bend elastic constant.

Keywords: chirality; liquid crystals; spontaneous symmetry breaking; twist-bend nematic phase.

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