ABSTRACT
Doping of the ferroelectric Sm-C(*) phase with bent-shaped molecules induces the antiferroelectric Sm-C(*)(A) phase. The effect was observed by means of electro-optic and dielectric measurements in systems with weak interlayer interactions in which the relative strength of anticlinic-synclinic order between molecules in adjacent layers is easily controlled by external factors. Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy studies suggest that the bent-shaped molecules are not flat. They reorient upon the electric field-induced antiferroelectric-ferroelectric transition to adopt a position in which the average direction of the carbonyl groups is in the smectic plane and a bending tip along the C2 symmetry axis.
ABSTRACT
When outfitted with long alkyl chains, polycaps, capsules along a polymer chain, spontaneously organize themselves into a two-dimensional liquid crystalline phase. Further organization results from shearing or pulling the liquid crystalline samples, producing three-dimensional assemblies of micrometer-wide, infinitely long fibers (see schematic representation).
