Issue 34, 2022

Design of discotic liquid crystal enabling complete switching along with memory of homeotropic and homogeneous alignment over a large area

Abstract

The alignment control of discotic columnar liquid crystals (LCs), featuring a low motility of the constituent molecules and thus having a large viscosity, is a challenging task. Here we show that triphenylene hexacarboxylic ester, when functionalized with hybrid side chains consisting of alkyl and perfluoroalkyl groups in an appropriate ratio, gives a hexagonal columnar (Colh) LC capable of selectively forming large-area uniform homeotropic or homogeneous alignments, upon cooling from its isotropic melt or upon application of a shear force at its LC temperature, respectively. In addition to the alignment switching ability, each alignment state remains persistent unless the LC is heated to its melting temperature. In situ X-ray diffraction analysis under the application of a shear force, together with polarized optical microscopy observations, revealed how the columnar assembly is changed during the alignment-switching process. The remarkable behavior of the discotic LC is discussed in terms of its rheological properties.

Graphical abstract: Design of discotic liquid crystal enabling complete switching along with memory of homeotropic and homogeneous alignment over a large area

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Edge Article
Submitted
01 Jul 2022
Accepted
19 Jul 2022
First published
19 Jul 2022
This article is Open Access

All publication charges for this article have been paid for by the Royal Society of Chemistry
Creative Commons BY license

Chem. Sci., 2022,13, 9891-9901

Design of discotic liquid crystal enabling complete switching along with memory of homeotropic and homogeneous alignment over a large area

Y. Shoji, M. Kobayashi, A. Kosaka, R. Haruki, R. Kumai, S. Adachi, T. Kajitani and T. Fukushima, Chem. Sci., 2022, 13, 9891 DOI: 10.1039/D2SC03677K

This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported Licence. You can use material from this article in other publications without requesting further permissions from the RSC, provided that the correct acknowledgement is given.

Read more about how to correctly acknowledge RSC content.

Social activity

Spotlight

Advertisements