Structure and Properties of New de Vries SmA∗ Liquid Crystals
Journal article, 2004
We synthesized a chiral mesogen AC11 and two different siloxanes MSi2-AC11 and DSi3-AC11 derived from it by a hydrosilylation reaction. The effects of varying the molecular architecture were investigated with special attention being devoted to the occurrence of the de Vries SmA* phase. Strong hints that all the three molecules follow the scenario suggested by de Vries were found in the behavior of the susceptibility by studies of their electrooptical response in the SmA* phase. In particular DSi3-AC11 containing two mesogens interconnected by a siloxane spacer presented a critical exponent gamma as high as 1.97, indicating a practically pure de Vries behavior Temperature-dependent X-ray analysis revealed that the three materials underwent a small layer shrinkage at the SmA*-SmC* transition.
smectic A
siloxane liquid crystal
phase structure
electrooptics
de Vries
Author
M. Reihmann
University of Pisa
A. Crudeli
University of Pisa
C. Blanc
University of Montpellier
V. Lorman
University of Montpellier
Y. P. Panarin
Dublin Institute of Technology (DIT)
Trinity College Dublin
J. K. Vij
Trinity College Dublin
Nils Olsson
Chalmers, Department of Chemical Engineering and Environmental Sciences
G. Galli
University of Pisa
Ferroelectrics
0015-0193 (ISSN)
Vol. 309 111-119Subject Categories
Other Engineering and Technologies not elsewhere specified
Materials Chemistry
Other Materials Engineering
Organic Chemistry
DOI
10.1080/00150190490510050