Amphiphilic cholesteric liquid crystals prepared from the quaternary ammonium surfactant S-(−)-1-hexadecyl-1-methyl-2-pyrrolidinemethanol bromide

Abstract

We describe the first successful attempt to produce amphiphilic cholesteric liquid crystals using a chiral quaternary ammonium surfactant, namely S-(−)-1-hexadecyl-1-methyl-2-pyrrolidinemethanol bromide. Only amphiphilic cholesteric liquid crystal samples were made where the micelle structure is related to disc shaped micelles in the achiral N_D phase. The surfactant concentration dependence of the twist and the temperature dependence of the twist were made using laser diffraction. The twist in the amphiphilic cholesteric liquid crystal samples was too small to produce total iridescence.