Molecular biaxiality determines the helical structure - infrared measurements of the molecular order in the nematic twist-bend phase of difluoro terphenyl dimer

Merkel, Katarzyna; Loska, Barbara; Welch, Chris; Mehl, Georg H.; Kocot, Antoni

Abstract

Fourier-transform infrared polarized spectroscopy was employed, to obtain the three components of the infrared absorbance for a series of bent-shaped dimers containing double fluorinated terphenyl core (DTC5Cn, n = 5, 7, 9, 11). The data were used to calculate both uniaxial and biaxial order parameters, for various molecular groups of dimers. The molecule bend was estimated based on the observed differences between the uniaxial order parameters for the terphenyl core and central hydrocarbon linker. The orientational order, distinctly reverses its monotonic trend of increase to decrease at the transition temperature, from the uniaxial nematic to the twist-bend nematic phase as result of the director tilt in latter/(twist-bend) phase. The molecular biaxiality, which is negligible in the nematic phase, starts increasing on entering the twist-bend nematic phase, following a sin-square relationships with the tilt angle. The local director curvature is found to be controlled by the molecular biaxiality parameter.

Citation

Merkel, K., Loska, B., Welch, C., Mehl, G. H., & Kocot, A. (2021). Molecular biaxiality determines the helical structure - infrared measurements of the molecular order in the nematic twist-bend phase of difluoro terphenyl dimer. Physical chemistry chemical physics : PCCP, 23(7), 4151-4160. https://doi.org/10.1039/d1cp00187f

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Feb 2, 2021
• Online Publication Date: Feb 2, 2021
• Publication Date: Feb 21, 2021
• Deposit Date: Feb 10, 2021
• Publicly Available Date: Feb 3, 2022
• Journal: Physical Chemistry Chemical Physics
• Print ISSN: 1463-9076
• Publisher: Royal Society of Chemistry
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 23
• Issue: 7
• Pages: 4151-4160
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1039/d1cp00187f
• Keywords: Physical and Theoretical Chemistry; General Physics and Astronomy
• Public URL: https://hull-repository.worktribe.com/output/3716637