Fractal Features of Growing Aggregates from Isotropic Melt of a Chiral Bent-Core Liquid Crystal

Abstract

Fractal features of aggregates growing out of the isotropic melt of a chiral bent-core liquid crystal, 1,3-phenylene bis {4-[3-chloro-4-(3,7-dimethyloctyloxyl)] phenyliminomethyl} benzoate, were investigated with differential scanning calorimetry, polarizing optical microscopy, and computer-aided simulation, respectively. Both star-like and grass-like aggregates were observed to grow out of the isotropic melt of the bent-core liquid crystal. With box-counting method, we calculated the fractal dimensions to be about 1.9 for both the star-like and the grass-like aggregates, suggesting the percolation growth of the banana-phase from the isotropic melt of the chiral bent-core liquid crystal.

Keywords:

• bent-core liquid crystal
• chiral molecule
• fractal aggregations
• fractal dimension

Acknowledgments

Financial supports from the National Science Foundation of China (No. 10674091), the Scientific Research Fund for Returned Overseas Chinese Scholar from Education Ministry of China (No. 2005–546), and the Key Research Project of the Education Ministry of China (No. 206110) are gratefully acknowledged.