Tilted supramolecular structures of amphiphilic glycolipids in straight‐core smectic C liquid crystals

Abstract

Optical microscopic and the electric polarization studies show that amphiphilic glycolipids form tilted supramolecular structures in straight‐core tilted smectic liquid crystals. Glycolipid and chiral smectic C (SmC) structures show spontaneous polarization while glycolipid and non‐chiral SmC structures show no spontaneous polarization. We deduce from these observations that glycolipid molecules in chiral SmC structures nano‐segregate in tilted double layers sandwiched between layers of straight‐core liquid crystal molecules. In non‐chiral SmC structures, tilted glycolipid molecules are nano‐segregated in the layers of straight‐core liquid crystal molecules. This indicates that, in contrast to the currently accepted interdigitated model, amphiphilic glycolipids may already have a tilted structure.

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank A. Jakli and G. Liao at the Liquid Crystal Institute, Kent State University for help in the polarization measurements, and Paulo Teixeira at Centro de Fisica Teorica e Computacional, Lisbon, Portugal for perceptive discussions.