Issue 15, 2022

All-atom simulations of bent liquid crystal dimers: the twist-bend nematic phase and insights into conformational chirality

Abstract

The liquid crystal dimer 1,7-bis-4-(4′-cyanobiphenyl)heptane (CB7CB) is known to exhibit a nematic–nematic phase transition, with the lower temperature phase identified as the twist-bend nematic (NTB) phase. Despite the achiral nature of the mesogen, the NTB phase demonstrates emergent chirality through the spontaneous formation of a helical structure. We present extensive molecular dynamics simulations of CB7CB using an all-atom force field. The NTB phase is observed in this model and, upon heating, shows phase transitions into the nematic (N) and isotropic phases. The simulated NTB phase returns a pitch of 8.35 nm and a conical tilt angle of 29°. Analysis of the bend angle between the mesogenic units reveals an average angle of 127°, which is invariant to the simulated phase. We have calculated distributions of the chirality order parameter, χ, for the ensemble of conformers in the NTB and N phases. These distributions elucidate that CB7CB is statistically achiral but can adopt chiral conformers with no preference for a specific handedness. Furthermore, there is no change in the extent of conformational chirality between the NTB and N phases. Using single-molecule stochastic dynamics simulations in the gas phase, we study the dimer series CBnCB (where n = 6, 7, 8 or 9) and CBX(CH2)5YCB (where X/Y = CH2, O or S) in terms of the bend angle and conformational chirality. We confirm that the bent molecular shape determines the ability of a dimer to exhibit the NTB phase rather than its potential to assume chiral conformers; as |χ|max increases with the spacer length, but the even-membered dimers have a linear shape in contrast to the bent nature of dimers with spacers of odd parity. For CBX(CH2)5YCB, it is found that |χ|max increases as the bend angle of the dimer decreases, while the flexibility of the dimers remains unchanged through the series.

Graphical abstract: All-atom simulations of bent liquid crystal dimers: the twist-bend nematic phase and insights into conformational chirality

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
03 Mar 2022
Accepted
24 Mar 2022
First published
25 Mar 2022
This article is Open Access
Creative Commons BY license

Soft Matter, 2022,18, 3087-3096

All-atom simulations of bent liquid crystal dimers: the twist-bend nematic phase and insights into conformational chirality

G. Yu and M. R. Wilson, Soft Matter, 2022, 18, 3087 DOI: 10.1039/D2SM00291D

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