Chiral solutes can seed the formation of enantiomorphic domains in a twist-bend nematic liquid crystal

James Emsley (1) , Philippe Lesot (2, 3) , Geoffrey Luckhurst (1) , Abdelkrim Meddour (2) , Denis Merlet (2)

1 University of Southampton
2 ICMMO - Institut de Chimie Moléculaire et des Matériaux d'Orsay
3 CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique

The twist-bend nematic, an enantiomorphic liquid-crystalline phase, exhibited by the structurally symmetric liquid-crystal dimer CB7CB is induced to form a single domain of uniform handedness, in the bulk, by the addition of the dopant chiral solute (S)-1-phenylethanol. Addition of a nonracemic (or scalemic) mixture of both R and S enantiomers of this solute produced equal volumes of P and M chiral domains for the twist-bend nematic phase. This seeding of the domains in an enantiomorphic nematic conglomerate is revealed using deuterium NMR spectroscopy.

Mots clés: NMR; Deuterium; Enantiomorphic; Liquid-crystalline phase; Enantiomers; Twist-bend nematic; CB7CB

Domaines: Chimie théorique et/ou physique

James Emsley, Philippe Lesot, Geoffrey Luckhurst, Abdelkrim Meddour, Denis Merlet. Chiral solutes can seed the formation of enantiomorphic domains in a twist-bend nematic liquid crystal. Physical Review E : Statistical, Nonlinear, and Soft Matter Physics, 2013, 87 (4), ⟨10.1103/PhysRevE.87.040501⟩. ⟨hal-02311510⟩