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Advances in Liquid Crystalline Materials—Beyond the Visible

A special issue of Materials (ISSN 1996-1944). This special issue belongs to the section "Optical and Photonic Materials".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (30 November 2021) | Viewed by 5419

Special Issue Editor


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Guest Editor
Faculty of Advanced Materials and Chemistry, Military University of Technology, Warsaw, Poland
Interests: synthesis of liquid crystals; highly birefringent nematics; nematic liquid crystals for IR; THz; GHz; chiral smectics
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Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Liquid crystalline (LC) materials originate from the visible range of electromagnetic radiation. They have been designed and tailored for display and nondisplay applications for this spectral region. The molecular design evolved over decades and was strongly corelated with market needs. During recent years, many new areas, including THz and GHz applications, have discovered and utilized the modulating potential of LC materials. Applications for the infrared (IR) range, with some exceptions, are mainly supported by LC materials selected from a general group of mesomorphic materials. The long supremation of the visible spectral range is strongly imprinted on LC molecular design and, consequently, the new molecular design paradigm very slowly developing. The process of going beyond the visible range is important for LC materials, since each spectral range has its own optimal parameters and molecular requirements and limitations. For many different applications, such novel tailored liquid crystals are very promising and allow them to gain technological and functional advantages compared with other materials previously used in these techniques.

The goal of this Special Issue is to bring together the current research of experimental and theoretical chemists, physicists, material scientists, and chemical engineers who are working in any of the broad range of topics mentioned above. It is my pleasure to invite authors to contribute original research articles, reviews, short communications, and concept papers to this Special Issue.

Prof. Przemysław Kula
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Materials is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • beyond visible mesomorphic materials
  • highly birefringent nematics
  • liquid crystals for IR, THz, and GHz
  • superfluorinated nematics
  • deuterated liquid crystals (LCs)

Published Papers (3 papers)

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Research

12 pages, 6062 KiB  
Article
Synthesis, Mesomorphism and the Optical Properties of Alkyl-deuterated Nematogenic 4-[(2,6-Difluorophenyl)ethynyl]biphenyls
by Jakub Herman, Piotr Harmata, Michał Czerwiński, Olga Strzeżysz, Marta Pytlarczyk, Monika Zając and Przemysław Kula
Materials 2021, 14(16), 4653; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/ma14164653 - 18 Aug 2021
Cited by 3 | Viewed by 1761
Abstract
The synthesis and characterization of new deuterated liquid crystal (LC) compounds based on phenyl tolane core is described in this paper. The work presents an alternative molecular approach to the conventional LC design. Correlations between molecular structure and mesomorphic and optical properties for [...] Read more.
The synthesis and characterization of new deuterated liquid crystal (LC) compounds based on phenyl tolane core is described in this paper. The work presents an alternative molecular approach to the conventional LC design. Correlations between molecular structure and mesomorphic and optical properties for compounds which are alkyl-hydrogen terminated and alkyl-deuterium, have been drawn. The compounds are characterized by mass spectrometry (electron ionization) analysis and infrared spectroscopy. They show enantiotropic nematic behavior in a broad temperature range, confirmed by a polarizing thermomicroscopy and differential scanning calorimetry. Detailed synthetic procedures are attached. Synthesized compounds show a significantly reduced absorption in the near-infrared (NIR) and medium-wavelength infrared (MWIR) radiation range, and stand as promising components of medium to highly birefringent liquid crystalline mixtures. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advances in Liquid Crystalline Materials—Beyond the Visible)
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18 pages, 28060 KiB  
Article
New-Generation Liquid Crystal Materials for Application in Infrared Region
by Piotr Harmata and Jakub Herman
Materials 2021, 14(10), 2616; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/ma14102616 - 17 May 2021
Cited by 8 | Viewed by 1844
Abstract
This study presents 13 new organic compounds with self-assembling behavior, which can be divided into two groups. The first synthesized group includes compounds based on 4′-(trifluoromethoxy)-[1,1′-biphenyl]-4-yl-4-(trifluoromethoxy) benzoate core, and the second includes compounds based on 4-((4-(trifluoromethoxy)phenyl)ethynyl)phenyl-4-(trifluoromethoxy) benzoate core. They differ in the number [...] Read more.
This study presents 13 new organic compounds with self-assembling behavior, which can be divided into two groups. The first synthesized group includes compounds based on 4′-(trifluoromethoxy)-[1,1′-biphenyl]-4-yl-4-(trifluoromethoxy) benzoate core, and the second includes compounds based on 4-((4-(trifluoromethoxy)phenyl)ethynyl)phenyl-4-(trifluoromethoxy) benzoate core. They differ in the number and location of the fluorine atom in the lateral position. Mesomorphic properties, phase transition enthalpies, refractive indices, birefringence, and MWIR (mid-wavelength infrared) spectral properties of the compounds were investigated, and the results were compared with currently used materials. The influence of the length of the core as well as type and position of substituents in the molecular core was analyzed. The lack of aliphatic protons in the molecular structure generated unique infrared properties. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advances in Liquid Crystalline Materials—Beyond the Visible)
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12 pages, 14961 KiB  
Article
Electro-Optical and Photo Stabilization Study of Nematic Ternary Mixture
by Aleksandra Kalbarczyk, Noureddine Bennis, Jakub Herman, Leszek R. Jaroszewicz and Przemysław Kula
Materials 2021, 14(9), 2283; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/ma14092283 - 28 Apr 2021
Cited by 6 | Viewed by 1377
Abstract
Liquid crystal materials composed of mixed nematic compounds find broad use in liquid crystal displays and photonic applications. A ternary mixture formed from three different nematic compounds shows peculiar behavior such as tunable electro-optical properties dependent on the frequency of the driving voltage. [...] Read more.
Liquid crystal materials composed of mixed nematic compounds find broad use in liquid crystal displays and photonic applications. A ternary mixture formed from three different nematic compounds shows peculiar behavior such as tunable electro-optical properties dependent on the frequency of the driving voltage. The paper presents an analysis of the response time and phase retardation of a frequency tunable nematic liquid crystal mixture (under code name 5005). This material possesses high birefringence (Δn = 0.32 at 633 nm) as well as high dielectric anisotropy (Δε = 6.3 at 100 Hz). The unique property of the 5005 mixture is frequency-controlled phase modulation, as in a dual frequency liquid crystal, while dielectric anisotropy goes to zero instead of being negative at high frequencies. For each component of the mixture, details on mesomorphic properties and their role in the formulation of the mixture are reported. The 5005 mixture was characterized by multiple investigation techniques, such as temperature dependence dielectric anisotropy, transmittance measurements image polarizing microscopy, and UV stability. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advances in Liquid Crystalline Materials—Beyond the Visible)
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