Induction of B₁, B₆ and Biaxial Smectic A Phases in Binary Mixtures of Compounds with Rod-Like and Bent-Core Molecules

Abstract

We have studied a binary mixture of compounds, one of which has rod-like molecules and the other bent-core molecules. The rod-like molecules are biphilic in nature with a long alkoxy chain attached to an aromatic moeity only at one end, and exhibit the bilayer SmA₂ phase, even though they do not have the highly polar cyano or nitro groups. The compound with bent-core molecules exhibit the B₂ phase which has polarized layers with tilted molecules. Three liquid crystalline phases are induced in the binary mixtures, depending on the concentration: the 2-dimensionally ordered B₁ phase for compositions with 15 to 63 mol% of the rod-like molecules and the B₆ phase for 63 to 87 mol%. The sequence obtained on increasing the concentration of rod-like molecules is the same as that seen on shortening the chain length of the BC molecules. Between 87 to 95.5 mol% of the rod-like molecules, a new biaxial smectic A₂ (SmA_2b ) phase is induced. On the basis of several observations, we argue that it corresponds to a structure in which the BC molecules are reoriented with their arrow directions pointed along the layer normal. The SmA₂ to SmA_2b transition corresponds to an orientational transition of the bent-core molecules in the anisotropic SmA₂ background medium.

Key Words:

• Biaxial smectic A
• bilayer smectic A
• induced phases
• binary mixtures
• bent-core molecules