RESUMEN
We report the use of Fourier-transform infrared (IR) spectroscopy to probe intermolecular and intramolecular hydrogen bonding in thermotropic liquid-crystal phases. Infrared spectra of aligned smectic liquid crystal materials vs temperature, and of isotropic liquid-crystal mixtures vs concentration were measured in homologs both with and without hydrogen bonding. Hydrogen bonding significantly changes the direction and magnitude of the vibrational dipole transition moments, causing marked changes in the IR dichroic absorbance profiles of hydrogen-bonded molecular subfragments. A GAUSSIAN94 computation of the directions, magnitudes, and frequencies of the vibrational dipole moments of molecular subfragments shows good agreement with the experimental data. The results show that IR dichroism can be an effective probe of hydrogen bonding in liquid-crystal phases.
RESUMEN
Polarized Fourier transform infrared (IR) absorption is used to probe molecular conformation in a ferroelectric liquid crystal during the large-scale collective reorientation induced by external applied electric field. Spectra of planar-aligned cells of the ferroelectric liquid crystal (FLC) W314 ((S)-4(')-(decyloxy)4-[(1-methylheptyl)oxy]-2-nitrophenyl-[1, 1'-biphenyl]-4-carboxylic acid ester) are measured as functions of IR polarizer orientation and time following the reversal of the electric field applied to the FLC. The time evolution of the dichroism of the absorbance due to the specific molecular vibration modes, particularly from the biphenyl core and alkyl tail, is observed. Static IR dichroism experiments show a W314 IR dichroism structure in which the principal axis of the dielectric tensor from molecular core vibrations are tilted further from the smectic layer normal than those of the tail. This structure indicates that the effective binding site in which the molecules are confined in the Sm-C phase has, on average, a "zig-zag" shape. The dynamic experiments show that this zig-zag binding site structure is rigidly maintained while the molecular axis rotates about the layer normal during field-induced switching.
RESUMEN
Thin freely suspended films of a mixture of an achiral side-chain liquid crystal polymer and its monomer have been studied with depolarized reflected light microscopy. We observe that regions with an odd number of bilayers exhibit a net spontaneous polarization in the tilt plane of the molecules, while regions with an even number of bilayers have no net polarization. These odd-even effects are direct evidence that the tilted smectic bilayers are anticlinic at the polymer backbone and synclinic at bilayer interface and confirm that the phase is bilayer-by-bilayer antiferroelectric.
RESUMEN
We describe the design and synthesis of a ferroelectric liquid crystal composed of racemic molecules. The ferroelectric polarization results from spontaneous polar symmetry breaking in a fluid smectic. The ferroelectric phase is also chiral, resulting in the formation of a mixture of macroscopic domains of either handedness at the isotropic-to-liquid crystal phase transition. This smectic liquid crystal is thus a fluid conglomerate. Detailed investigation of the electrooptic and polarization current behavior within individual domains in liquid crystal cells shows the thermodynamically stable structure to be a uniformly tilted smectic bow-phase (banana phase), with all layer pairs homochiral and ferroelectric (SmC(S)P(F)).
RESUMEN
A smectic liquid-crystal phase made from achiral molecules with bent cores was found to have fluid layers that exhibit two spontaneous symmetry-breaking instabilities: polar molecular orientational ordering about the layer normal and molecular tilt. These instabilities combine to form a chiral layer structure with a handedness that depends on the sign of the tilt. The bulk states are either antiferroelectric-racemic, with the layer polar direction and handedness alternating in sign from layer to layer, or antiferroelectric-chiral, which is of uniform layer handedness. Both states exhibit an electric field-induced transition from antiferroelectric to ferroelectric.
RESUMEN
Photopolymerizable diacrylate monomers dissolved in fluid-layer smectic A and smectic C liquid crystal (LC) hosts exhibited significant spatial segregation and orientation that depend strongly on monomer structure. Small, flexible monomers such as 1,6-hexanediol diacrylate (HDDA) oriented parallel to the smectic layers and intercalated, whereas rod-shaped mesogen-like monomers such as 1,4-di-(4-(6-acryloyloxyhexyloxy)benzoyloxy)-2-methylbenzene (C6M) oriented normal to the smectic layers and collected within them. Such spatial segregation caused by the smectic layering dramatically enhanced photopolymerization rates; for HDDA, termination rates were reduced, whereas for C6M, both the termination and propagation rates were increased. These polymerization precursor structures suggest novel materials-design paradigms for gel LCs and nanophase-separated polymer systems.
