Exploring Crystal-Phase Molecular Dynamics of the Low-Viscous Mesogen 6CHBT: A Combined FFC and High-Field NMR Relaxometry Investigation

• Published in: The journal of physical chemistry. B 2024-04, Vol.128 (16), p.3997-4007
• Main Authors: Phani Kumar, Bandaru V. N., Lobo, Nitin P., Mattea, Carlos, Stapf, Siegfried
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: B: Soft Matter, Fluid Interfaces, Colloids, Polymers, and Glassy Materials
• ISSN: 1520-6106; 1520-5207
• DOI: 10.1021/acs.jpcb.3c08259

The molecular dynamics study of thermotropic mesogens exhibiting the crystal phases is valuable in unraveling the complex global (collective) and local (noncollective) motions executed by liquid crystal molecules, which would further advance the existing knowledge on orientationally disordered crystalline (ODIC) phases. Toward the fulfillment of such a task, a combined nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) relaxometry approach employing the fast field cycling (FFC) NMR (10 kHz–30 MHz) and high-field pulsed NMR (400 MHz) techniques is utilized to sample the broad frequency range offered by molecular motions in the crystal phase of 4-(trans-4′-n-hexylcyclohexyl)-isothiocyanatobenzene (6CHBT). The validity of the observed relaxation data is tested and interpreted by the Bloembergen–Purcell–Pound (BPP) model involving the superposition of four mutually independent Lorentzian spectral densities, reflecting molecular dynamical processes on different time scales. The salient feature of the detailed analysis reveals that the lengthening of temporal dynamics in the crystal phase due to molecular rotations by jumps, which are of intermolecular origin, is evident and further supports the presence of collective-like local dynamics. The analysis does permit decoupling of the molecular reorientations about their short axes (∼100 ns) as well as long axes (∼50 ns) and methyl group rotations (∼0.5 ns) on distinct time scales. The activation energies for reorientations about the short axes and methyl group rotations are found to be 27.3 ± 2.7 and 15.8 ± 1.1 kJ/mol, respectively. The fast methyl rotations in the crystal phase of 6CHBT obtained from FFC NMR are further well complemented by high-field NMR, where 1H NMR line shapes are relatively narrow when compared to those of the nematic phase.