Chirality inversion in cholesteric phases of bent-shaped liquid crystal dimers with chiral dopants.

ABSTRACT: Incorporating molecular chirality into liquid crystals (LCs) yields nanoscale one-handed helical structures. The helical pitch of a cholesteric (Ch) phase (i.e., a chiral nematic phase) is typically slightly temperature-dependent, and the sense of helical rotation (i.e., chirality) rarely inverts. This study reports helical pitch divergence and chirality inversion in the Ch phase of bent-shaped LC dimers added with a chiral dopant (CD). We prepared four chiral LC mixtures containing equal proportions of two ester-linked 4-(trans-4-pentylcyclohexyl)phenyl-based bent-shaped LC dimers with odd-numbered spacers, each doped with 0.25, 0.50, 1.0, or 2.0 wt% of an isosorbide-based CD, ISO-(6OBA)₂. All mixtures exhibited enantiotropic chiral twist-bend nematic and C

SUBMITTER: Arakawa Y 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12628302 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature