English (United Kingdom)

https://curated-unify.zendy.io/wp-json/zendy-region/v1/featured_content/oa?rat=en

https://curated-unify.zendy.io/wp-json/zendy-region/v1/highlighted_journal/

Zendy Plus

Presents the access of premium content as premium feature

Premium Content

Presents the keyphrase highlighting as premium feature

Keyphrase Highlighting

Presents the summarisation as premium feature

Summarisation

Insights

Presents the pdf analysis as premium feature

PDF Analysis

Presents the zaia usage as premium feature

ZAIA

Zendy Tools

Zendy Open

Liquid crystal dimers with odd spacers are good candidates as materials for biaxial nematic phases (N B ). The dimers are flexible molecules sustaining biaxial conformations, and couplings between the conformational and orientational distributions could be expected to stabilise N B . We apply a molecular field theory for flexible molecules developed elsewhere to study a simple system made up of dimers composed of two cylindrically symmetric mesogenic groups. Our model allows for two idealised conformations: one linear and one bent at a tetrahedral angle. For a restricted set of chain lengths, the model predicts a first-order reentrant phase transition from the N B phase into a low temperature uniaxial nematic phase (N U ). However the formation of the biaxial nematic could be blocked by the appearance of a twist-bent nematic.

Molecular field theory for biaxial nematics formed from liquid crystal dimers and inhibited by the twist-bend nematic