Broad ranges and fast responses of single-component blue-phase liquid crystals containing banana-shaped 1,3,4-oxadiazole cores

I-Hung Chiang; Chun-Ji Long; Hsin-Chieh Lin; Wei-Tsung Chuang; Jey-Jau Lee; Hong-Cheu Lin

doi:10.1021/am403976a

Broad ranges and fast responses of single-component blue-phase liquid crystals containing banana-shaped 1,3,4-oxadiazole cores

ACS Appl Mater Interfaces. 2014 Jan 8;6(1):228-35. doi: 10.1021/am403976a. Epub 2013 Dec 17.

Authors

I-Hung Chiang¹, Chun-Ji Long, Hsin-Chieh Lin, Wei-Tsung Chuang, Jey-Jau Lee, Hong-Cheu Lin

Affiliation

¹ Department of Materials Science and Engineering, National Chiao Tung University , Hsinchu 30049, Taiwan.

PMID: 24344632
DOI: 10.1021/am403976a

Abstract

In this study, we synthesized two novel 1,3,4-oxadiazole-based bent-core liquid crystals (OXD7*, OXD5B7F*) containing a chiral tail that display broad ranges of the blue phase III (34 and 7 K, respectively); we characterized them using polarized optical microscopy, differential scanning calorimetry, and circular dichroism. The electro-optical responses of both of these liquid crystals are much faster than those of previously reported single-component blue-phase liquid crystals. To optimize its electro-optical performance, we mixed OXD7* (the blue-phase range of which is broader than that of OXD5B7F*) with its analogue OXD6 (at weight ratios of 6:4 and 4:6). We also performed molecular modeling of single-component BPLCs (OXD7* and OXD5B7F*) to analyze the possible parameters affecting their blue phase ranges.