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Shape‐Assisted Self‐Organization in Highly Disordered Liquid Crystal Phases
Author(s) -
Kishikawa Keiki,
Yamamoto Yusuke,
Watanabe Go,
Kawamura Ayaka,
Kohri Michinari,
Taniguchi Tatsuo
Publication year - 2017
Publication title -
angewandte chemie
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 1521-3757
pISSN - 0044-8249
DOI - 10.1002/ange.201700809
Subject(s) - liquid crystal , phase (matter) , crystallography , intermolecular force , optical microscope , molecule , polarized light microscopy , materials science , diffraction , scanning electron microscope , chemistry , chemical physics , optics , organic chemistry , physics , optoelectronics , composite material
In achiral rod‐like molecules, a nematic phase is the most disordered liquid crystal phase, which only has one‐directional order in the direction of the molecular long axis. A dumbbell‐shaped molecule (compound 3 : R−C 6 H 10 −CH=CH−C 6 H 4 −CH=CH−C 6 H 10 −R, (R= n C 5 H 11 )), and its liquid crystal phase ( X phase) are reported, which exhibit high scattering without thermal fluctuation between two nematic phases under a polarized light optical microscope. The X phase was investigated by X‐ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy, atomic force microscopy, and molecular dynamics simulation. A layered structure was ascertained for which a molecular self‐organization mechanism was postulated in which the super‐structure is based on lateral intermolecular interlocking. A second nematic phase above the X phase consisted of “rice grain”‐shaped particles.