Mandle, RJ orcid.org/0000-0001-9816-9661, Sebastián, N, Martinez-Perdiguero, J et al. (1 more author) (2021) On the molecular origins of the ferroelectric splay nematic phase. Nature Communications, 12 (1). 4962. ISSN 2041-1723
Abstract
Nematic liquid crystals have been known for more than a century, but it was not until the 60s–70s that, with the development of room temperature nematics, they became widely used in applications. Polar nematic phases have been long-time predicted, but have only been experimentally realized recently. Synthesis of materials with nematic polar ordering at room temperature is certainly challenging and requires a deep understanding of its formation mechanisms, presently lacking. Here, we compare two materials of similar chemical structure and demonstrate that just a subtle change in the molecular structure enables denser packing of the molecules when they exhibit polar order, which shows that reduction of excluded volume is in the origin of the polar nematic phase. Additionally, we propose that molecular dynamics simulations are potent tools for molecular design in order to predict, identify and design materials showing the polar nematic phase and its precursor nematic phases.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © The Author(s) 2021. This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0) (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of Leeds |
Academic Units: | The University of Leeds > Faculty of Engineering & Physical Sciences (Leeds) > School of Physics and Astronomy (Leeds) > Soft Matter Physics (Leeds) |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Publications |
Date Deposited: | 28 Apr 2022 10:12 |
Last Modified: | 28 Apr 2022 10:12 |
Status: | Published |
Publisher: | Nature Research |
Identification Number: | 10.1038/s41467-021-25231-0 |
Related URLs: | |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:186088 |