Spontaneous chirality through mixing achiral components: a twist-bend nematic phase driven by hydrogen-bonding between unlike components

Chem Commun (Camb). 2018 Mar 29;54(27):3383-3386. doi: 10.1039/C8CC00525G.

Abstract

The spontaneous formation of a chiral phase via molecular recognition in a system consisting of achiral components is reported. Specifically, the liquid crystalline behaviour of two molecular complexes assembled by hydrogen bonding between a stilbazole-based template and alkoxybenzoic acids has been characterised. The complexes exhibit the heliconical twist-bend nematic phase (NTB) over a broad temperature range despite the hydrogen-bond acceptor not being liquid crystalline and the donor exhibiting the conventional achiral nematic phase.