Simple and Efficient Chiral Dopants to Induce Blue Phases and Their Optical Purity Effects on the Physical Properties of Blue Phases

"Colored" inorganic dopants for inducing liquid crystal chiral nematic and blue phases: monitoring of dopant-host interaction by Raman spectroscopy

A new ruthenium complex that effectively induces chiral nematic and blue phases upon doping with a nematic liquid crystal was developed. The red-colored dopant exhibits strong Raman scattering in solution and nematics even at low concentrations. Further measurements at various concentrations strongly suggested homogeneous dispersion of the dopant in chiral nematics.

Enhancement of the helical twisting power with increasing the terminal chain length of nonchiral bent-core molecules doped in a chiral nematic liquid crystal

We measured the helical twisting power (HTP) of nonchiral bent-core molecules doped in a chiral nematic liquid crystal, and found that HTP increases with the terminal chain length.

Effect of the Functional Groups of Racemic Rodlike Schiff Base Mesogens on the Stabilization of Blue Phase in Binary Mixture Systems

Four series of rodlike racemic Schiff base mesogens possessing different alkyl chains and two types of linkages, ester and alkynyl linkages, were synthesized and applied to induce cubic blue phases (BPs) in simple binary mixture systems. The mesophases of these Schiff base mesogens were confirmed by variable-temperature X-ray diffraction and the characteristic texture from polarized optical microscopy (POM). In general, when chiral additive S-(+)-2-octyl 4-(4-hexyloxybenzoyloxy)benzoate (S811; 20-40 wt %) is added into the rodlike racemic salicylaldimine-based mesogens, the cubic BPs could be observed and its temperature range is larger than 20 K. The widest temperature range of the cubic BP (35 K) can be observed in the blending mixture composed of rodlike racemic salicylaldimine-based mesogen OH-TI_n possessing alkynyl linkage and 35-40 wt % S811. However, Schiff base mesogens possessing alkynyl linkage show a direct isotropic to chiral nematic transition when equal amount of chiral dopant is added. Notably, the termination temperature of BPs is very close to room temperature (ca. 35 °C) after 40.0 wt % S811 is added into the salicylaldimine-based mesogens possessing terminal alkyl chains and ester linkage. Interestingly, wide BPs (>30 K) can also be induced by adding chiral additive 1,4:3,6-dianhydro-2,5-bis[4-(n-hexyl-1-oxy)benzoic acid]sorbitol (ISO(6OBA)₂) with a high helical twisting power into the racemic Schiff base mesogen possessing ester linkage. Cubic BPI and BPII can be confirmed by reflectance spectra and POM. The results of reflectance spectra indicate that the binary mixture composed of salicylaldimine-based mesogens and S811 easily exhibits a supercooling effect and induces BPI. However, only BPII can be observed in all binary mixtures containing Schiff base mesogens. On the basis of our experimental results and molecular modeling, we suppose that the values of biaxiality, polarizability, and the dipole moment of molecular geometry are the main factors that affect BP stabilization.

Stabilization and optical switching of liquid crystal blue phase doped with azobenzene-based bent-shaped hydrogen-bonded assemblies

Stabilization and phototuning of the reflection color of BP I have been demonstrated in a BP-LCs by employing a new kind of bent-shaped H-bonded assemblies with azobenzene group.