title: Change of handedness in cholesteric liquid crystalline phase for N-phthaloylchitosan solutions in organic solvents.
abstract: The influence of concentration on the helicoidal change of N-phthaloylchitosan (PhCh) solutions in Me2SO, DMAc and DMF was investigated by means of circular dichroism (CD). The critical concentrations to form liquid crystal phase in these three solvents were 43, 45 and 48 wt.%, respectively as measured with polarized optical microscope. There were two kinds of CD peaks, sharp peaks with absorption maximum at about 330 nm induced by the helical conformation of molecular chain, and very broad peaks covering almost whole visible region induced by the cholesteric helix of mesophase. The later only appeared in concentrated solutions with the concentration higher than the critical concentration. The handedness of both levels of helicoidal structures changed from left- to right-handed with the increase of concentration for PhCh/Me2SO solutions. The chirality transfer occurred between these two chiral levels. For PhCh/DMAc and PhCh/DMF systems, only the handedness of helical conformation reversed, but the cholesteric helix did not change. As a method to measure critical concentration, CD is more sensitive than polarized optical microscopy (POM).
authors.affiliation: Department of Materials Science and Engineering, State Key Laboratory for Physical Chemistry of Solid Surfaces, Xiamen University, Xiamen 361005, PR China. ymdong@xmu.edu.cn
authors.forename: Yanming
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Dong
authors.forename: Yusong
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Wu
authors.forename: Yaqing
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Zhao
authors.forename: Huiwu
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: Yonghong
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Ruan
authors.forename: Hui
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: Xueming
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Fang
mesh_terms: D002686:Chitin / Q000031:analogs & derivatives* / Q000737:chemistry*; D048271:Chitosan; D002942:Circular Dichroism; D003460:Crystallization; D004121:Dimethyl Sulfoxide / Q000737:chemistry; D009682:Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy; D012996:Solutions / Q000737:chemistry; D012997:Solvents / Q000737:chemistry*; D017550:Spectroscopy, Fourier Transform Infrared
chemical_list: C483239:N-phthaloylchitosan; D012996:Solutions; D012997:Solvents; D002686:Chitin; D048271:Chitosan; D004121:Dimethyl Sulfoxide