Smectic Liquid Crystals

A special issue of Crystals (ISSN 2073-4352). This special issue belongs to the section "Liquid Crystals".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (20 September 2022) | Viewed by 4918

Special Issue Editors

Institute of Nuclear Physics Polish Academy of Sciences Radzikowskiego 152, 31342 Kraków, Poland
Interests: liquid crystals; smectic phases; glass transition; cold crystallization; crystallization kinetics; high pressure effects; relaxation dynamics; vibrational dynamics; differential scanning calorimetry; broadband dielectric spectroscopy; fourier transform infrared spectroscopy
Institute of Chemistry, Military University of Technology; gen. Sylwestra Kaliskiego 2, 00908 Warsaw, Poland
Interests: liquid crystals; polymers; electro-optical properties
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Institute of Nuclear Physics Polish Academy of Sciences; Radzikowskiego 152, 31342 Kraków, Poland
Interests: liquid crystals; glass transition; crystallization; structural studies; X-ray diffraction

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Although the history of liquid crystals is over 130 years old, they are still eagerly studied in the context of searching for new materials that would meet the constantly growing needs of applications, as well as building up specific knowledge in the field of fundamental sciences about soft condensed matter. One of the more interesting representatives of liquid crystalline states is smectic phases which form layered structures. A special form of the smectic phases are the chiral smectic phases composed of chiral molecules forming a helical superstructure. A systematic study of such materials is still highly desired, since the chiral smectic phases are promising for liquid crystal display technology, because devices with short switching time, large contrast and many scales can be realized.

In this Special Issue, we would like to include articles on the fundamental research of smectic liquid crystals as well as those describing their applications. We are open to all advanced issues related to the leading topic, and keywords should be considered only as examples.

Dr. Anna Drzewicz
Dr. Michał Czerwiński
Dr. Aleksandra Deptuch
Guest Editors

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Keywords

  • Synthesis of smectic liquid crystals
  • Characterization of smectic liquid crystals
  • Relaxation dynamics of smectic liquid crystals
  • Spectroscopic studies of smectic liquid crystals
  • Glass transition, cold crystallization, and kinetics of crystallization
  • Smectic liquid crystals under confinement
  • Application of smectic liquid crystals
  • Chiral smectic liquid crystals

Published Papers (2 papers)

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Research

16 pages, 3786 KiB  
Article
Stability and Rupture of Liquid Crystal Bridges under Microgravity
by Torsten Trittel, Christoph Klopp, Kirsten Harth and Ralf Stannarius
Crystals 2022, 12(8), 1092; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/cryst12081092 - 04 Aug 2022
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1225
Abstract
Liquid-crystal columns were prepared and observed under microgravity aboard suborbital TEXUS rocket flights. The microgravity phase of each flight lasted for approximately six minutes. We tested structures in different liquid-crystalline mesophases. In the isotropic and nematic phases, the Rayleigh-Plateau instability led to the [...] Read more.
Liquid-crystal columns were prepared and observed under microgravity aboard suborbital TEXUS rocket flights. The microgravity phase of each flight lasted for approximately six minutes. We tested structures in different liquid-crystalline mesophases. In the isotropic and nematic phases, the Rayleigh-Plateau instability led to the collapse of the columns. However, in the smectic A and C mesophases, it was found that the columns survived the extension to slenderness ratios (length/diameter) of over 4.5 (and in one case, more than 6). The liquid-crystalline material in the millimeter-sized columns was macroscopically disordered. Thus, regular shell-like internal layer structures that stabilized the columns can be excluded. Instead, the reason for their persistence was the yield stress of the material, which is quite different for the different mesophases. In the columnar mesophase, the cylindrical bridge even survived the strong deceleration when the rocket re-entered the atmosphere. During the breakup of the filaments, the neck thinning dynamics were determined. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Smectic Liquid Crystals)
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14 pages, 3732 KiB  
Article
Mesomorphic Behaviour and DFT Insight of Arylidene Schiff Base Liquid Crystals and Their Pyridine Impact Investigation
by Mohamed A. Zakaria, Mohammed Alazmi, Kanubhai D. Katariya, Yeldez El Kilany, El Sayed H. El Ashry, Mariusz Jaremko, Mohamed Hagar and Sayed Z. Mohammady
Crystals 2021, 11(8), 978; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/cryst11080978 - 18 Aug 2021
Cited by 9 | Viewed by 2401
Abstract
A new series of Schiff base liquid crystal have been prepared and studied. Schiff bases of p-alkyl aniline derivatives and 4-phenyl pyridine-4′-carbaldehyde were prepared. The terminal alkyl groups substituting aniline are of varied chain length, namely C8, C12 and C14. The structures of [...] Read more.
A new series of Schiff base liquid crystal have been prepared and studied. Schiff bases of p-alkyl aniline derivatives and 4-phenyl pyridine-4′-carbaldehyde were prepared. The terminal alkyl groups substituting aniline are of varied chain length, namely C8, C12 and C14. The structures of the compounds were elucidated by 1H NMR and 13C NMR. The mesomorphic thermal and optical characteristics of the samples were determined via differential thermal analysis (DSC) and polarization optical microscopy (POM). All compounds exhibit enantiotropic dimorphic mesophase behaviour, referred to as smectic X1 (SmX1) and smectic X2 (Sm A). Experimental results obtained for the mesophases were correlated with density functional theory (DFT) theoretical calculations. The results of the new series are further compared to two series of compounds bearing pyridine (two ring Schiff bases) and biphenyl, respectively, in their mesogens. The series of compounds of one pyridine ring are generally not mesomorphic. The results indicate that the alkyl chain length has a strong impact on the mesomorphic characteristics and thermal stabilities of the different mesophases. As a trend, the temperature ranges of both of smectic mesophases of all compounds are higher in new compounds bearing the 4-phenyl pyridine moiety. In addition, the total mesophase range is generally higher in the new compounds when compared to their biphenyl analogues. Finally, theoretical DFT calculations were performed to illustrate the experimental finding of the mesomorphic behaviour in terms of the molecular geometry and aromaticity, π–π stacking and LOL-π. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Smectic Liquid Crystals)
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