Anopore confinement in the cyanobiphenyl-based liquid crystal dimer CB7CB. A dielectric study

ABSTRACT

We report an experimental work on the liquid crystal dimer 1’’,7’-bis(4-cyanobiphenyl-4’-yl) heptane (CB7CB) confined to Anopore membranes. We have studied the behaviour of the dielectric relaxation modes in the isotropic (I), nematic (N) and twist-bend nematic (N_TB) phases by broadband dielectric spectroscopy and compared to the results of the bulk sample. We have found that the strength of the components of the static dielectric permittivity for bulk and confined samples diminishes when cooling but, once in the N_TB phase, those of the confined CB7CB tend to decrease in a slower rate compared to the ones of bulk CB7CB. This work is meant to play a humble tribute to the first report on a cyanobiphenyl-based LC in its 50^th anniversary.

GRAPHICAL ABSTRACT

KEYWORDS:

• Cyanobiphenyl
• liquid crystal dimer
• twist-bend nematic
• confinement
• dielectric spectroscopy
• glass transition

Acknowledgments

N. Sebastián acknowledges the support of the Slovenian Research and Innovation Agency [grant number P1-0192]. M. R. de la Fuente acknowledges the financial support by Eusko Jaurlaritza–Basque Government [Project IT1458-22].

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Correction Statement

This article has been corrected with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.

Additional information

Funding

The work was supported by the Eusko Jaurlaritza [IT1458-22]; Slovenian Research and Innovation Agency [P1-0192].