Orientational Order of Fluorinated Mesogens Containing the 1,3,2-Dioxaborinane Ring: A Multidisciplinary Approach

Orientational ordering studies of fluorinated thermotropic liquid crystals by NMR spectroscopy

Fluorinated calamitic thermotropic liquid crystals represent an important class of materials for high-tech applications, especially in the field of liquid crystal displays. The investigation of orientational ordering in these systems is fundamental owing to the dependence of their applications on the anisotropic nature of macroscopic optical, dielectric, and visco-elastic properties. NMR spectroscopy is the most powerful technique for studying orientational order in liquid crystalline systems at a molecular level thanks to the possibility of exploiting different anisotropic observables (chemical shift, dipolar couplings, and quadrupolar coupling) and nuclei ((2)H, (13)C, and (19)F). In this paper, the basic theory and NMR experiments useful for the investigation of orientational order on fluorinated calamitic liquid crystals are reported, and a review of the literature published on this subject is given. Finally, orientational order parameters determined by NMR data are discussed in comparison to those obtained by optical and dielectric anisotropy measurements.

Orientational order of two fluoro- and isothiocyanate-substituted nematogens by combination of 13C NMR spectroscopy and DFT calculations

Orientational order properties of two nematogens containing a fluoro- and isothiocyanate-substituted biphenyl moiety have been investigated by means of (13)C NMR spectroscopy. (13)C NMR spectra acquired on static samples under high-power (1)H-decoupling allowed both (13)C chemical shift anisotropies and (13)C-(19)F couplings to be measured. These data were used to determine the local principal order parameter and biaxiality for the different rigid fragments of the molecules. To this aim, advanced DFT methods for the calculation of geometrical parameters and chemical shift tensors were used. The orientational order parameters obtained by NMR have been critically compared with those obtained by dielectric spectroscopy. Trends of order parameters with temperature have been analyzed in terms of both mean field theory and the empirical Haller equation.

Unusual temperature dependence of the splay elastic constant of a rodlike nematic liquid crystal doped with a highly kinked bent-core molecule

We report an unusual temperature dependence of the elastic constants of a rodlike nematic liquid crystal (RLC) mixed with a highly kinked bent-core liquid crystal (BLC). On cooling through the nematic phase, the splay elastic constant (K(11)) of the RLC-BLC mixture increased below the nematic-isotropic phase transition temperature, but started to decrease midway through the nematic phase. The decrease of K(11) was more prominent with a greater concentration of BLC. On the other hand, the bend elastic constant (K(33)) of the RLC-BLC mixture monotonically increased through the nematic phase with decreasing temperature.

Density-functional-theory investigation of conformations, 13C shielding, and magnetic field interactions in a V-shaped phenylene bis carboxylate homologous series

Density functional theory (DFT) has been employed in a conformational study of a bent-core PBBC homologous series. IR spectra, GIAO-DFT chemical shielding tensors (CSTs), and molecular susceptibility tensors (MSTs) are theoretically calculated for various optimized conformations established by searching the potential energy surface of each PBBC V-shaped molecule. The IR results could aid the understanding of vibration normal modes, while the MST results can illuminate the alignment properties of the V-shaped molecules in an external magnetic field. CSTs of the aromatic carbons, and those previously measured by the 2D-NMR SUPER technique (with some (13)C NMR peaks reassigned for correctness based on new DFT calculations), were found to be in good agreement. These verified experimental CSTs are then used to revisit the (13)C NMR data to yield structural and local orientational order parameters for two members of the PBBC series. The PBBC series studied using the combined DFT-(13)C NMR approach strongly supports the notion that lesser populated conformational states found by DFT could be reached in the studied mesogens 10DClPBBC and 11ClPBBC upon decreasing temperature, as revealed by the change in the bend angle determined by NMR and identified with those of the DFT molecular structures optimized for various conformers.

Orientational order in liquid crystals by combining 2H and 13C nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy and density functional theory calculations

Structural and orientational order properties of the liquid crystal 4,4'-bis-heptyl-azoxybenzene (HAB) have been obtained in its nematic and smectic- A phases by simultaneously analyzing several observables extracted from 2H and 13C nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectra, i.e., 2H quadrupolar, 2H-1H and 13C-2H dipolar couplings, as well as 13C chemical shift anisotropy. 13C experiments required the application of high-resolution solid-state NMR techniques like 1H high-power decoupling and cross polarization, as well as the independent determination of chemical shift tensors by means of density functional theory (DFT) calculations, here performed taking into account the effect of the anisotropic medium by the polarizable continuum model method. The approach, consisting in the simultaneous analysis of all the 2H and 13C experimental data to derive orientational order parameters, and in the use of geometrical parameters determined by DFT methods, allows more detailed and reliable results to be obtained with respect to the traditional approach based on the sole analysis of 2H experiments.