The first example of a liquid crystalline side-chain polymer with bent-core mesogenic units: ferroelectric switching and spontaneous achiral symmetry breaking in an achiral polymer.
A dimethylsiloxane diluted polysiloxane side chain co-polymer with non-chiral banana-shaped mesogenic units shows an optically isotropic ferroelectric switching polar smectic C phase (SmCPF) consisting of a conglomerate of homogeneously chiral domains with opposite handedness.
Keith
Christina
C
Institute of Organic Chemistry, Martin-Luther-University Halle-Wittenberg, Kurt-Mothes Str. 2, D-06120 Halle, Germany.
Reddy
R Amaranatha
RA
Tschierske
Carsten
C
D003460:Crystallization; D015394:Molecular Structure; D011108:Polymers / Q000737:chemistry*; D033362:Powder Diffraction; D012833:Siloxanes / Q000737:chemistry*; D013997:Time Factors
D011108:Polymers; D012833:Siloxanes