On the molecular origins of the ferroelectric splay nematic phase.
basic_science · Level V
Where this comes from
- Record sourced from PubMed, PMID 34400645.
- Also identified by DOI 10.1038/s41467-021-25231-0 and PMC identifier 8367997.
- Licence recorded as CC BY.
- The licence permits redistribution, so the abstract is shown in full and the full text is available from the publisher.
Abstract
Nematic liquid crystals have been known for more than a century, but it was not until the 60s-70s that, with the development of room temperature nematics, they became widely used in applications. Polar nematic phases have been long-time predicted, but have only been experimentally realized recently. Synthesis of materials with nematic polar ordering at room temperature is certainly challenging and requires a deep understanding of its formation mechanisms, presently lacking. Here, we compare two materials of similar chemical structure and demonstrate that just a subtle change in the molecular structure enables denser packing of the molecules when they exhibit polar order, which shows that reduction of excluded volume is in the origin of the polar nematic phase. Additionally, we propose that molecular dynamics simulations are potent tools for molecular design in order to predict, identify and design materials showing the polar nematic phase and its precursor nematic phases.