Highly elastic liquid crystals with a sub-nanonewton bending elastic constant mediated by the resident molecular assemblies.

Aya, Satoshi; Obara, Haruki; Pociecha, Damian; Araoka, Fumito; Okano, Kunihiko; Ishikawa, Ken; Gorecka, Ewa; Yamashita, Takashi et al. · Adv Mater · 2014

basic_science · Level V

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Abstract

A surprisingly high bending elastic constant (K33 ) is obtained in a newly synthesized compound shown here. Mixtures containing a few percent of this compound confirm the influence of the unusual K33 values, and show an improved electro-optic response. The origin of the huge K33 is discussed based on the formation of a smectic cluster structure formed in the nematic phase.