A new family of four-ring bent-core nematic liquid crystals with highly polar transverse and end groups.

Non-symmetrically substituted four-ring achiral bent-core compounds with polar substituents, i.e.., chloro in the bent or transverse direction in the central core and cyano in the lateral direction at one terminal end of the molecule, are designed and synthesized. These molecules possess an alkoxy chain attached at only one end of the bent-core molecule. The molecular structure characterization is consistent with data from elemental and spectroscopic analysis. The materials thermal behaviour and phase characterization have been investigated by differential scanning calorimetry and polarizing microscopy. All the compounds exhibit a wide-ranging monotropic nematic phase.

Extremely High Kerr Constant and Low Operating Voltage in a Stable Room-Temperature Blue Phase III Derived from Three-Ring-Based Bent-Core Molecules.

In this study, we used a new series of highly polar three-ring-based bent-core liquid crystals (BCLCs) to stabilize a wide temperature range of blue phase III (BPIII), including room temperature. A significant finding is the implementation of electro-optical (E-O) switching at room temperature in the current BPIII system. The observed Kerr constant (K) has an extraordinarily high value (K ≈ 9.2 × 10-9m V-2) that exceeds all previously reported values in the category of BPIII materials. The extremely high value of K realizes the lowest operating voltage (Von ≈ 3.3 Vrms/µm) for BPIII. The measured values of K and Von in BPIII set a new limit for the experimentalist. The millisecond (ms) order response times are explained based on rotational viscosity. The present binary system of BPIII materials is an excellent choice for device application.