Chiral additive effects on phase transition behavior of a U-shaped compound exhibiting a cybotactic nematic phase

Abstract

Cybotactic nematic (Ncyb) phase s have been investigated inten sively for consideration in the field of biaxial nematic liquid crystals. Furthermore, bent -core molecules exhibiting an Ncyb phase are reported to stabilize a blue phase. We prepared some binary mixtures of a U-shaped compound exhibiting an Ncyb phase and a chiral additive. We investigated their phase transition behavior using polarized optical microscopy and differential scanning calorimetry. The U-shaped catechol derivative doped with a chiral compound possessing high twisting power was found to show blue phases with a wide temperature range more than 20 K.