Highlights
Odd-Even Behavior of Ferroelectricity and Antiferroelectricity in Two Homologous Series of Bent-core Mesogens
S. K. Lee, et al. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 127 (2005) 11085
Bent-core liquid crystals (see figure) has been attracted much attention recently. These molecules spontaneously resolve into chiral domains and exhibit ferroelectric and antiferroelectric phases despite being achiral. In this study, we showed that ferroelectric and antiferroelectric phases emerge depending on odd and even of the end chain length in two homologous series (eight compounds) of bent-core liquid crystals. Namely, it is shown that interlayer steric interaction is very important for the selection of polar orders. Many bent-core mesogens exhibit the antiferroelectric phase. It is expected that the present study provides us with a guideline for the molecular designs to realize the ferroelectric phase.
This work was carried out under the collaboration with Busan Univ. of Korea, Watanabe lab, and Takahashi/Doi lab in applied chemistry department.