Synthesis and study of hybrid hydrogen-bonded bent-core liquid crystal complexes containing C 60 - and Si-based proton donors

• Published in: RSC advances 2015, Vol.5 (121), p.99732-99738
• Main Authors: Liu, Shih-Hsien, Yang, Po-Jen, Wei, Chong-Lun, Chiang, I.-Hung, Liao, Chun-Yen, Gouda, Chinmayananda, Arumugaperumal, Reguram, Chuang, Wei-Tsung, Lee, Jey-Jau, Chen, San-Yuan, Lin, Hong-Cheu
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• ISSN: 2046-2069; 2046-2069
• DOI: 10.1039/C5RA11186B

Novel hydrogen-bonded (H-bonded) C 60 - and Si-based bent-core liquid crystal (LC) complexes containing a bent-shaped proton acceptor and C 60 - and Si-based single/double armed proton donors were synthesized and mixed to produce hybrid H-bonded LC complexes. The SmCP phases could be introduced in the hybrid LC complexes with a very high C 60 -based moiety up to 90 mol%. Among our H-bonded LC complexes, the hybrid LC complexes with low amounts of the C 60 -based moiety (≦24 mol%) possessed the highest spontaneous polarization value ( ca. 494 nC cm −2 ), the widest mesophasic range (40.8 °C) and the lowest saturated electric field (8.8 V pp μm −1 ). Under electric fields of modified triangle waveforms, both series of hybrid H-bonded LC complexes displayed an anti-ferroelectric (AF) to a ferroelectric (FE) polar switching as the C 60 -based moiety increased up to 24–50 mol%. Therefore, the hybrid H-bonded LC complexes containing a broad molar ratio (0–90 mol%) of C 60 -based moiety revealed a tunable route for the electro-optical applications of C 60 -based H-bonded liquid crystals.