ABSTRACT
New hockey-stick-shaped liquid crystals (HSLCs) have been designed and synthesised. By extreme shortening of one ‘arm’ in the HSLCs, we have constructed the pronounced overall hockey-stick-shaped molecular conformation of these materials, and called the pseudo-rod-like (PRL) molecules with hockey-stick-shaped mesogen. The chemical structures were identified using spectroscopy and elemental analysis. The mesomorphic behaviour was investigated by polarising optical microscopy (POM), differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), X-ray diffractometry (XRD), and via electro-optical experiments. As a result, in spite of the PRL molecules, the various mesomorphic polymorphism, the interdigitated bi-layered structure and macroscopic polarity were found. Similar to up-to-date HSLCs, the quasi-bent-core LCs showed a transition from the synclinic SmC phase (SmCs) to anticlinic SmC (SmCa) phase, and exhibited SmA-type (NCybA) and SmC-type (NCybC) cybotactic nematic phases. At the same time, similar to practical rod-like LCs, the PRL molecules showed good surface alignment behaviour under planar boundary conditions.
Graphical Abstract
![](/cms/asset/fe182464-3191-431a-85c6-a052c5f40f40/tlct_a_1630492_uf0001_oc.jpg)
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.
Supplementary materials
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