Spontaneous chirality through mixing achiral components: a twist-bend nematic phase driven by hydrogen-bonding between unlike components

Linkage control between molecular and supramolecular chirality in 21-helical hydrogen-bonded networks using achiral components

Chiral molecules preferentially form one-handed supramolecular assemblies that reflect the absolute configuration of the molecules. Under specific conditions, however, the opposite-handed supramolecular assemblies are also obtained because of flexibility in the bond length and reversibility of non-covalent interactions. The mechanism of the handedness selectivity or switching phenomenon remains...

Nematic twist-bend phase with nanoscale modulation of molecular orientation

A state of matter in which molecules show a long-range orientational order and no positional order is called a nematic liquid crystal. The best known and most widely used (for example, in modern displays) is the uniaxial nematic, with the rod-like molecules aligned along a single axis, called the director. When the molecules are chiral, the director twists in space, drawing a right-angle helico...

Alternating twist structures formed by electroconvection in the nematic phase of an achiral bent-core molecule.

We report an unusual electroconvection in the nematic phase of a bent-core liquid crystal. In a voltage-frequency diagram, two frequency regions exhibiting prewavy stripe patterns were found, as reported by Wiant We found that these stripes never show extinction dark when cells were rotated under crossed polarizers. Based on the color interchange in between neighboring stripes by the rotation o...

Equilibrium shapes of a twist-bend nematic drop

These notes supplement our paper Interfacial and morphological features of a twist-bend nematic drop, producing a number of analytical details of the mathematical model employed there to interpret the experimental observations of equilibrium shapes of a twist-bend nematic drop in two space dimensions. For the sake of continuity and completeness, some figures and equations are also reproduced here.

Fluctuation modes of a twist-bend nematic liquid crystal