Biaxial Nematic Liquid Crystals

Edward T. Samulski, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, DMR 0501262

Small Angle X-Ray (SAX) scattering has confirmed that the biaxial nematic liquid crystal phase derived from the bent-core ODBP mesogen (1) is in fact a nematic exhibiting skewed cybotaxis – smectic fluctuations wherein the molecules are tilted in the strata.

(1)This inherently biaxial supramolecular structure—clusters of stratified and tilted mesogens—embedded in an otherwise translationally disordered nematic host medium accounts for the NMR biaxiality found in nematic phases of ODBP LCs. SAX diffraction pattern from magnetic field

aligned nematic phase of (1).

O. Francescageli & E. T. Samulski Soft Matter 2010 6, 2413-2420.E. T. Samulski Liquid Crystals 2010 37, 669-678.

Undergraduate Tatum Tauscher traveled 2,828 miles with her LC samples to UNC Chapel Hill where she and her mentor, Prof. Eric Scharrer, Chair of Chemistry at University of Puget Sound, confirmed the presence of biaxial nematic LC phases in new low-temperature ODBP mesogens that they synthesized. These new LCs are biaxial nematics at room temperature suggesting that more energy efficient LCDs based on long sought after nematic phase are feasible.

Tatum Tauscher & Eric Scharrer (August 2010)

Biaxial Nematic Liquid Crystals

Edward T. Samulski, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, DMR 0501262