Liquid crystal displays are widely used in display screens of phones, laptops, and computers. These liquid crystals are in a phase between the solid crystalline and isotropic liquid phase. Bent-core liquid crystals often exhibit unique banana phases. But the oxadiazole-based liquid crystals being studied in our group typically show nematic or smectic phases instead. However, a subclass of these derivatives, with lateral methyl and halogens, also show a banana phase. We wished to further study the banana phase formed by these compounds, but the prior synthetic route to these compounds had been problematic. So much of the initial research focused on improving the process so cleaner products could be obtained. Differential scanning calorimetry and polarizing microscopy were used to carefully analyze the phase behavior of the target compounds, particularly the properties of the banana phase. Synthetic details and phase behavior will be discussed in this presentation.

Oxadiazole-based liquid crystals that exhibit banana phases: Phase behavior and improvements to the synthetic methodology

ACS Spring 2022

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