The range of possible morphologies for bent‐core B4 phase liquid crystals has recently expanded from helical nanofilaments (HNFs) and modulated HNFs to dual modulated HNFs, helical microfilaments, and heliconical‐layered nanocylinders. These new morphologies are observed when one or both aliphatic side chains contain a chiral center. Here, the following questions are addressed: which of these two chiral centers controls the handedness (helicity) and which morphology of the nanofilaments is formed by bent‐core liquid crystals with tris‐biphenyl diester core flanked by two chiral 2‐octyloxy side chains? The combined results reveal that the longer arm of these nonsymmetric bent‐core liquid crystals controls the handedness of the resulting dual modulated HNFs. These derivatives with opposite configuration of the two chiral side chains now feature twice as large dimensions compared to the homochiral derivatives with identical configuration. These results are supported by density functional theory calculations and stochastic dynamic atomistic simulations, which reveal that the relative difference between the
- Award ID(s):
- 1659571
- NSF-PAR ID:
- 10160209
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- Materials Horizons
- Volume:
- 6
- Issue:
- 5
- ISSN:
- 2051-6347
- Page Range / eLocation ID:
- 959 to 968
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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- Free Publicly Accessible Full Text
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Accepted Manuscript1.0
- Journal Article:
- https://doi.org/10.1039/C9MH00089E
