Columnar nematic phase tilted

In discotic phases the orientation of the molecules is perpendicular to the molecular plane. Here, the columns can be arranged in a nematic or columnar manner. In the nematic phase the molecules possess a centre of gravity randomly ordered, but with the short molecular axis of each molecule more or less parallel. In the columnar phase, beside the preferable orientation of the short molecular axes, the disc-like molecules are ordered forming columns. Depending on the correlation strength between he columns these phases can be subdivided into ordered or disordered. A third possibility is to have a thermodynamically preferable position of the columns in the mesophase, like in a hexagonal cell. Additionally, a tilt of the columns is also possible. 

Fig. 1 Organization of rod-like molecules (top) and disc-like molecules (bottom) in LC phases (for clarity the alkyl chains are not shown in the models of the phase structures). Abbreviations Iso isotropic liquid state N nematic LC phase SmA smectic A phase, SmC smectic C phase (tilted), Col columnar phase [8]...

Figure 3 Schematic showing (a) nematic phase of disklike mesogens (b) stacking of disklike molecules into columns (c) top view of the columnar hexagonal (Colh) phase (d) top view of one type of columnar rectangular (Cok) phase where the ellipses represent disks that are tilted within the column.

The orthogonal arrangement of the disc-like molecules in the columns of and D id phases makes these phases uniaxial, while the tilted phases (Drd and Doh.d and Dt) are optically biaxial. There are two additional columnar phases labeled as and that have not yet been classified. The columnar phases were discovered before the observation of a nematic phase for disc-like molecules. Both chiral nematic phases and the re-entrant behavior have now been observed in discotics. The phase diagram and molecular structure of a typical discotic liquid crystal are shown in Fig. 1.11. Finally, it is noted that another classification scheme for the discotic mesophases has been used [1.26], which is based on the notation used for the conventional smectics. 

Lyotropic nematic phases (see Section A) can also be produced by preparing, for instance, binary or ternary mixtures of organic disc-like compounds in suitable solvents such as hydrocarbons [20]. In linear saturated [20,21] or, as found recently [21], even better in cyclic saturated hydrocarbons, preferably cyclohexane [21], almie or in such a solvent plus an achiral or a chiral electron acceptor compound, induction of lyotropic Ncd or N coi phases, respectively, can occur. Sometimes, an Ncd phase can be formed in addition to a columnar phase [21]. Furthermore, it has also been observed that even two different No>i phases can be induced in diat way in the same system [22,23] showing a nematic-nematic phase transition [22-24] due to a diffa ence in the construction of their columns. In one of these Ncoi phases the constituent discs of the columns spontaneously formed are tilted with respect to the column axis, but in the second, parallel Ncoi phase they are untilted [22,23]. However, reliable data about the length of the columns in Ncoi phases do not yet seem to exist... 

Results for biaxial smectics and columnar phases have additional compressional terms, but tilted smectic phases can support additional torsional distortions. Such phases are conveniently described in terms of two directors, one along the tilt direction, corresponding to the nematic director n, and the projection of n on the layer plane, known as the c-director (see Fig. 6). 

Van Winkle, D. H. Clark, N. A. Freely suspended strands of tilted columnar liquid crystal phases One-dimentional nematics with orientational jumps. Phys. Rev. Lett. 1982, 48,1407-1410. 

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