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Unusual properties of a bent-core liquid-crystalline fluid

Research output: Contribution to Journal/MagazineJournal articlepeer-review

Published
  • Verena Goertz
  • Christopher Southern
  • Nicholas W. Roberts
  • Helen F. Gleeson
  • John W. Goodby
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<mark>Journal publication date</mark>2009
<mark>Journal</mark>Soft Matter
Issue number2
Volume5
Number of pages9
Pages (from-to)463-471
Publication StatusPublished
<mark>Original language</mark>English

Abstract

In our investigations of a family of achiral bent-core bis-(phenyl)oxadiazole derivatives, we observed some unusual properties of the nematic phase. These include evidence of segregation into domains of opposite handedness and the formation of clusters, nematic phase biaxiality, and a strongly kinetically governed phase behaviour, which leads to the display of unique filament structures at the onset of new order. We suggest that the combination of a deviant calamitic molecular shape with a considerable transverse dipole leads to an unusual strength and combination of molecular interactions, and as a consequence these nematic materials need to be considered as fluctuating and dynamically changing, multi-hierarchical fluids.