Induced smectic phases of stoichiometric liquid crystal mixtures

Abstract

We revealed the detailed structures of induced smectic liquid crystal (LC) phases composed of a binary mixture of charge-transfer (CT) LC substances. Although neither of the constituents had highly ordered smectic phases, the mixture exhibited smectic-E (SmE) or smectic-B (SmB) phases when mixed at ratios of 1 : 1 and 2 : 3, respectively. The results of polarized optical microscopy, differential scanning calorimetry, X-ray diffraction, and infrared spectroscopy indicated that the induced smectic phases were stabilized by an exquisite balance between the CT interactions, dipolar interactions, and excluded volume effects. We proposed a possible model for the molecular arrangements in the SmE and SmB phases, which consistently explained the experimental results including the stoichiometric ratios.