3B11 Nano-segregation structures of mesogens having a perfluorinated substituent and a hydrogen bonding active site : Cubic phase formation and SmC-SmA first order phase transition

Abstract

Two series of mesogenic compounds having a perfluorinated chain and a hydrogen bonding active site were synthesized and phase behavior was investigated with POM, DSC and XRD. Due to the high incompatibility between the perfluorinated substituent and the hydrocarbon moiety, liquid crystalline structures with nano-segregation are expected to form. We have found in one of hydrogen bonded complexes formation of a cubic phase with Ia3d symmetry, which is a nano-segregated structure, and in two of them first order smectic A to smectic C phase transition, which occurs owing to the frustration of nano-segregated structures of the lamellar phases.