Conformation and chirality in liquid crystals

摘要

High helical twisting powerchiral additives are required for an expanding variety of liquid crystal displays and devices. Molecular conformation plays a critical role in determining the helical twisting power, HTP, of chiral additives. We studied additives based on an isosorbide benzoate ester core. Molecular modeling revealed two low energy states with very different conformations for this core The ultra-violet absorption and NMR spectra show two stable isosorbide conformers These spectra reveal how the relative populations of these two conformations change with temperature and how this is related to the helical twisting power. Conformation changes can explain many of the observed anomalous responses of HPT to temperature.