https://doi.org/10.1140/epje/i2010-10556-8
Regular Article
Orientational order in liquid crystals exhibited by some binary mixtures of rod-like and bent-core molecules
Raman Research Institute, C.V. Raman Avenue, 560 080, Bangalore, India
* e-mail: pratibha@rri.res.in
** e-mail: nvmadhu@rri.res.in
Received:
26
June
2009
Revised:
3
December
2009
Published online:
1
March
2010
We report measurements of the temperature variations of the optical birefringence in the nematic (N) and partial bilayer SmA (SmAd) phases in 4-n-octyloxy 4′ -cyanobiphenyl made of rod-like (R) molecules and five mixtures of this compound with 1,3-phenylene bis[4-(3-methylbenzoyloxy)] 4′ -n- dodecylbiphenyl 4′ -carboxylate, made of bent-core (BC) molecules. The birefringence decreases with the concentration x of the BC molecules but the macroscopic order parameter initially decreases upto 11mol% of BC molecules and subsequently increases with x . This is attributed to the possible formation of polar clusters of BC molecules. Orientation of BC molecules changes between the N and SmAd phases and the birefringence data in the two phases imply that the kink angle of the BC molecules is ∼ 90° rather than ∼ 110° as obtained from calculations which minimize the energy of the molecule. IR spectroscopic measurements on the mixture with 11mol% of BC molecules have been used to estimate the molecular order parameter S of the R molecules, and to provide additional support for a relatively small kink angle of BC molecules.
© EDP Sciences, SIF, Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg, 2010