title: Chiral conglomerates observed for a binary mixture of a nematic liquid crystal trimer and 6OCB.
abstract: Dark conglomerates of domains with opposite handedness, which are designated as dark conglomerate phases (DC phases), have attracted much attention. After designing an achiral liquid crystal trimer, 4,4′-bis{7-[4-(5-octyloxypyrimidin-2-yl)phenyloxy]heptyloxy}biphenyl (1), which exhibits only a nematic phase, we prepared binary mixtures with some typical rod-like nematic liquid crystals, i.e., 4′-hexyloxy-4-cyanobiphenyl (6OCB), 2-(4-hexyloxyphenyl)-5-pentyloxypyrimidine (PPY), or 4-methyloxyphenyl 4-hexyloxycyclohexanecarboxylate (PCA), and investigated their phase transition behaviour. The binary mixtures containing 55–90 mol% of 6OCB were found to exhibit a nematic phase and a DC phase of chiral domains with opposite handedness. However, neither PPY nor PCA induced such a chiral conglomerate phase in the mixture with trimer 1. We discuss how core–core interactions contribute to produce such a chiral conglomerate phase.
authors.affiliation: Department of Frontier Materials Chemistry, Graduate School of Science and Technology, Hirosaki University, 3 Bunkyo-cho, Hirosaki, Aomori 036-8561, Japan. ayoshiza@hirosaki-u.ac.jp.
authors.forename: Atsushi
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Yoshizawa
authors.affiliation: Department of Frontier Materials Chemistry, Graduate School of Science and Technology, Hirosaki University, 3 Bunkyo-cho, Hirosaki, Aomori 036-8561, Japan. ayoshiza@hirosaki-u.ac.jp.
authors.forename: Yusuke
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Kato
authors.affiliation: Department of Frontier Materials Chemistry, Graduate School of Science and Technology, Hirosaki University, 3 Bunkyo-cho, Hirosaki, Aomori 036-8561, Japan. ayoshiza@hirosaki-u.ac.jp.
authors.forename: Haruna
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Sasaki
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics, Graduate School of Science, Kyoto University, Oiwake-cho, Kitashirakawa, Sakyo-ku, Kyoto, 606-8562, Japan.
authors.forename: Yoichi
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Takanishi
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics, Graduate School of Science, Kyoto University, Oiwake-cho, Kitashirakawa, Sakyo-ku, Kyoto, 606-8562, Japan.
authors.forename: Jun
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Yamamoto