An experimental investigation of discrete changes in pitch in a thin, planar chiral nematic device

The phenomenon whereby sudden changes in helicoidal pitch occur in thin chiral nematic devices with strong surface anchoring has been studied experimentally. This has been done with the aim of examining the underlying process in the context of existing theory. Thin devices (∼2.5 µm thick) containing two commercially available chiral nematic liquid crystals were employed in the study. The samples were chosen for their dependence of pitch on temperature; one exhibits a very slow increase in pitch with increasing temperature (95.6% of the Merck material BL131 in BL130), while the second shows the more common rapid reduction in pitch with increasing temperature (the Merck mixture TM1001). High resolution reflection spectra were obtained for the devices and a numerical fitting algorithm, based on the Berreman 4×4 matrix technique, provided accurate information on changes in the pitch, refractive indices, device thickness and changes in the surface director across the pitch jump region. We demonstrate that changes in refractive index and device thickness are negligible in analysis of the reflection spectra across the pitch jumps. We further show that the pitch changes discontinuously at the pitch jump, with no variation in its value as the process occurs. We find evidence that the surface directors also change by less than 10° during this process in a manner analogous to coiling or uncoiling a constrained spring. This mechanism differs somewhat from others proposed in the literature.     

Photoracemization broadening of selective reflection and polarization band of glassy chiral-nematic films

Glass-forming liquid crystals consisting of a cyclohexane central core with (S)-1-phenyl-ethylamine and (4-cyanophenyl)naphthalene pendants were synthesized as hosts for racemizable (R)-dinaphtho[2,1-d:1',2'-f][1,3]dioxepin, a chiral dopant. Chiral-nematic films 14, 22, and 35 mum thick were prepared for thermal and photoinduced racemization at temperatures from 95 to 130°C, i.e. in the mesomorphic temperature range, over a period of hours to days. Spatially modulated photoracemization was accomplished with an insignificant contribution from the thermal process at temperatures around 100°C over a period of up to 3 h. With an absorbance per unit thickness of 6.2 mum^-1 at 334 nm, the photochemical process was essentially confined to the irradiated surface, thereby setting up counter-diffusion of the two enantiomers through the film, and hence the pitch gradient as visualized by atomic force microscopy. The significantly widened selective reflection band was interpreted with the Good-Karali theory extended for a gradient-pitch film. Furthermore, the bandwidth was found to increase with decreasing racemization temperature or with increasing film thickness, further validating the presence of a pitch gradient as a result of controlled photoracemization.     

Photoracemization broadening of selective reflection and polarization band of glassy chiral-nematic films

Glass-forming liquid crystals consisting of a cyclohexane central core with (S)-1-phenyl-ethylamine and (4-cyanophenyl)naphthalene pendants were synthesized as hosts for racemizable (R)-dinaphtho[2,1-d:1',2'-f][1,3]dioxepin, a chiral dopant. Chiral-nematic films 14, 22, and 35 mum thick were prepared for thermal and photoinduced racemization at temperatures from 95 to 130°C, i.e. in the mesomorphic temperature range, over a period of hours to days. Spatially modulated photoracemization was accomplished with an insignificant contribution from the thermal process at temperatures around 100°C over a period of up to 3 h. With an absorbance per unit thickness of 6.2 mum^-1 at 334 nm, the photochemical process was essentially confined to the irradiated surface, thereby setting up counter-diffusion of the two enantiomers through the film, and hence the pitch gradient as visualized by atomic force microscopy. The significantly widened selective reflection band was interpreted with the Good-Karali theory extended for a gradient-pitch film. Furthermore, the bandwidth was found to increase with decreasing racemization temperature or with increasing film thickness, further validating the presence of a pitch gradient as a result of controlled photoracemization.     

煤沥青的电化学加氢──Ⅰ．原料煤沥青的预处理和组成结构分析

为选择适于作为碳纤维原料的煤沥青，对三种中低温煤沥青的预处理和组成结构进行了研究，同时对其中的太钢煤沥青进行了热缩聚制取中间相沥青的结构变化分析。研究分析结果表明，只要经过合适的工艺路线进行处理，这三种煤沥青都有可能作为沥青基碳纤维的原料。     

煤沥青改质非等温动力学研究

The non-isothermal kinetics for mesophase transformation of Baogang-I coal tar pitch (I-CTP), soft pitch consisted of I-CTP and 18% phenanthrene residue oil (PRO) or I-CTP and 30% PRO have been studied in a thermal conversion unit. Kinetic parameters were calculated by using an integral method. Results showed that the process of mesophase pitch transformation could be described in first order reaction. The activation energy of I-CTP is 175.36kJ/ mol. But adding 30% PRO, which improved the reactivity of I-CTP with activation energy is 138.07kJ/mol, is not beneficial to mesophase transformation.     

脱晶蒽油改质煤焦油沥青的研究——中间相非等温动力学

在热转化装置上,对宝钢Ⅰ期焦油沥青（简称I－CTP）及其添加18％、30％脱晶蒽油（简称DCAO）制成的软沥青进行了中间相转化非等温动力学研究,采用积分法求得了有关动力学参数。结果表明,沥青中间相形成过程可以用一级反应来描述。宝钢Ⅰ期焦油沥青活化能为180.02kJ/mol。添加80％脱晶蒽油则提高了原料沥青的反应性,活化能为147.89kJ/mol,不利于优质中间相的形成。     

How to broaden the light reflection band in cholesteric liquid crystals? A new approach based on polymorphism

Cholesteric liquid crystals (CLCs) may selectively reflect light when the helicoidal pitch is of the order of the wavelength of the incident beam propagating along the helix axis. The reflection bandwidth is dependent on the birefringence and is limited to a few tens of nanometers, which is insufficient for applications such as white-on-black reflective displays. Recent studies have shown that CLC polymer networks with a pitch gradient induce a broadening of the reflection bandwidth over several hundreds of nanometers. Most related processes rely on photocrosslinking reactions with a UV-gradient in a mixture made of chiral and achiral monomers with different UV-reactivities. Here a new experimental route exploiting the polymorphism of the mixture is presented. The basic concept lies in a thermally-induced pitch variation simultaneously carried out with the UV-crosslinking reaction. The optical behaviour is investigated in parallel with the cross-sectional microstructure as observed by transmission electron microscopy.     

Molecular dynamics and the glass transition in a columnar liquid crystal formed by a chiral discotic mesogen

A new type of chiral discotic liquid crystal is described. It is based on a triphenylene core but carries only one asymmetric side chain per mesogen. This system displays a columnar liquid-crystalline mesophase with a helical superstructure and a pitch of 3·0 nm over a temperature range of 227 K. Upon cooling it forms a glassy state. By broadband dielectric and ²H NMR spectroscopy two motional processes are detected. The axial rotation of the discs around the column axis exhibits non-Arrhenius behaviour and is directly related to the glass transition. The second process is ascribed to localized side chain motions involving the ester linkages.     

How to broaden the light reflection band in cholesteric liquid crystals? A new approach based on polymorphism

Cholesteric liquid crystals (CLCs) may selectively reflect light when the helicoidal pitch is of the order of the wavelength of the incident beam propagating along the helix axis. The reflection bandwidth is dependent on the birefringence and is limited to a few tens of nanometers, which is insufficient for applications such as white-on-black reflective displays. Recent studies have shown that CLC polymer networks with a pitch gradient induce a broadening of the reflection bandwidth over several hundreds of nanometers. Most related processes rely on photocrosslinking reactions with a UV-gradient in a mixture made of chiral and achiral monomers with different UV-reactivities. Here a new experimental route exploiting the polymorphism of the mixture is presented. The basic concept lies in a thermally-induced pitch variation simultaneously carried out with the UV-crosslinking reaction. The optical behaviour is investigated in parallel with the cross-sectional microstructure as observed by transmission electron microscopy.     

New micro-structure designs of a wide band reflective polarizer with a pitch gradient

New microstructure designs for fabricating a wide band reflective polarizer (WBRP) from cholesteric liquid crystals are reported. The pitch difference in the WBRP is formed by orienting a single layer consisting of different glassy siloxane cyclic side chain oligomer powders on a heater. The molecular arrangement obtained is frozen by quenching. The experimental results show that various micro-areas exhibiting different reflection wavelengths and pitch gradients are formed in the WBRP. A WBRP exhibiting the reflection properties of the original cholesteric liquid crystals is fabricated by a novel experimental process and the experimental results are in accordance with the microstructure designs of the WBRP.     

喹啉不溶物对煤沥青热聚合改质影响的研究

采用软化点相同但喹啉不溶物（QI）含量不同的中温沥青为原料，进行了几类煤沥青的热聚合改质试验。研究表明，煤沥青原料QI含量对热聚合改质过程和产物改质沥青的性能指标影响很大，并且热聚合期间改质沥青的次生QI转变速率与原料煤沥青的QI含量成正比关系，通过对不同类型QI组分的分析，探讨了QI组分影响煤沥青热聚合改质的机理，认为原料煤沥青所含原生QI炭微粒促进了热聚合改质过程中煤沥青芳烃分子的聚合。     

Polarization holographic grating recording in the cholesteric azobenzene‐containing films with the phototunable helix pitch

The recording of polarization gratings in films of a cholesteric liquid crystalline polymer with different helix pitch was studied in detail. For this purpose, the cholesteric mixture of the nematic azobenzene‐containing copolymer with a chiral‐photochromic dopant was prepared. The utilization of such mixture has made possible to realize dual optical photorecording in one system, first due to the phototuning of the helix pitch by UV light and second the polarization grating recording process by exposure with polarized visible light. The diffraction efficiency strongly depends on the cholesteric helix pitch and films thickness: the increase of the confinement ratio d/p (where d, film thickness; p, helix pitch) results in growth of the diffraction efficiency. Comparison of the induction of polarization gratings in cholesteric, nematic (copolymer without chiral dopant), and amorphous (nonannealed) cholesteric films revealed that only the cholesteric films were characterized by significant oscillations in the diffraction efficiency signal as well as by the presence of the maximum in the first‐order diffraction efficiency in the initial stage of the grating recording process. It was found that in addition to the polarization grating surface relief gratings (SRGs) were also formed in the studied systems, however, the amplitude of the SRG inscribed in the cholesteric films was lower (～20 nm) compared to the grating amplitude obtained in nematic films (～60 nm). Moreover, increasing helix pitch resulted in a decrease of the SRG amplitude. The obtained experimental data demonstrate the great potential of cholesteric LC mixtures of such type for different applications as photoactive materials for photonics. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Polym. Sci., Part B: Polym. Phys. 2014 , 52, 773–781     

Behaviour of polymer dispersed cholesteric droplets with negative dielectric anisotropy in electric fields

The behaviour of chiral, polymer dispersed cholesteric liquid crystals with negative dielectric anisotropy in electric fields has been studied for a system with large cholesteric pitch (several μm) using polarizing microscopy. A uniformly oriented region appears in the centre of the droplets for voltages above a threshold voltage. We find that the radius of this region increases exponentially with increasing field strength, while the threshold voltage decreases with increasing drop diameter and with increasing pitch. Investigation of the dynamics reveals a single step mechanism with a time constant of a few seconds when a field is suddenly switched on. The switch-off process is more complex and much slower.     

Lattice structure in liquid-crystal blue phase with various chiral concentrations

Lattice structures, including reflection lattice planes and lattice constant, of liquid-crystal blue phase I (BPI) are studied via the measurements on reflection spectrum and Kossel diagram as concentration of a chiral dopant is changed. Peaks of the reflection wavelength in BPI are mainly dominated by the lattice plane and the lattice constant, which are affected by the chiral concentration. In the chiral nematic state, as decreasing the chiral concentration the reflection peak will shift to a longer wavelength because the helical pitch linearly depends on the chiral concentration and becomes longer. However, this dependence of the chiral concentration and reflection wavelength is broken in the BPI. The reflection peak of BPI moves to a short wavelength when the chiral concentration is less due to the contraction of the lattice constant as well as helical pitch. Moreover, when the concentration of the chiral dopant increases over a certain value, a discontinuous shift in reflection peak occurs due to the production of the different lattice planes. It means that the relationship between the chiral concentration and the helical pitch in BPI is not the same as it in the chiral nematic phase and should be reconsidered.     

The determination of cholesteric pitch from the diffusion profile A new experimental approach

The optical microscopic mass transport (OMMT) method was utilized to determine the cholesteric pitch values of the mixtures of mesogenic and non-mesogenic chiral species in nematic materials. The cholesteric pitch was determined by transient analysis of the diffusion profile established by allowing an initial cholestric composition (solute) to diffuse under semi-infinite linear boundary conditions into an oriented thin film of its corresponding nematic solvent. During the steady-state diffusion, where the initial concentration (pitch) remains constant, the transient analysis of the profile with a polarization microscope exhibits a maximum number of pitch discontinuity domains. The evaluation of the unknown pitch was carried out by extrapolation of the diffusion pitch gradient to the original diffusion source by using the exact relation between the pitch and the film thickness. The method is experimentally simple; at constant temperature and pressure, determination of the pitch depends only on the film thickness. There is a good agreement between the pitch values obtained with this method and those from conventional techniques.     

Assembly of an Achiral Chromophore into Light‐Responsive Helical Nanostructures in the Absence of Chiral Components

The chirality found in living organisms is one of unsolved mysteries on Earth. It is crucial to understand the manner in which small achiral molecules evolve into helical superstructures in the absence of chiral components because this process can provide important insights regarding the origin of chirality in nature. 1) the uncommon helical assembly of an achiral trigonal chromophore into helical nanostructures with aggregation‐induced emission enhancement (AIEE) characteristics and 2) the tunability of the helical pitch and fluorescence intensity in response to light is reported. The Rietveld refinement of X‐ray diffraction (XRD) patterns and the growth process suggest that a striking transformation from an achiral to an asymmetric molecule can occur as a result of specific interactions with certain solvents, presumably leading to the unique helical assembly. More importantly, exposure to UV or visible light promoted not only the formation of irregular helical structures with a wide range of pitch lengths but also an increase in fluorescence intensity.     

Fabrication of large-area ferromagnetic arrays using etched nanosphere lithography

Nanosphere lithography (NSL) is a simple, cost-effective, and powerful technique capable of producing large-area arrays of ferromagnetic nanostructures with dimensions below 100 nm. These properties make NSL an attractive process for the fabrication of arrays of magnetic elements with applications in magnetic data storage. The main disadvantage with conventional NSL is that the monolayer of spheres always contains imperfections that are transferred to the resulting nanostructures. This can significantly affect the structural and magnetic properties of the fabricated array. In this paper we present a novel adaptation of NSL that reduces the effect of such defects on the resulting nanostructures. The technique also offers excellent control over the diameter, aspect ratio, and pitch of the fabricated elements. These properties are demonstrated through the fabrication of arrays of Ni elements of 210 nm diameter and arrays of Co elements with diameters between 200 and 320 nm.     

Interaction forces between talc and pitch probed by atomic force microscopy

Colloidal wood resin components present in pulp are collectively called "pitch". The presence of pitch may cause severe problems due to deposits in and on the paper machine. There is thus a need for controlling pitch aggregation and adsorption. To be able to develop more efficient pitch control systems, one needs to develop the understanding of pitch-pitch interactions and of the interactions between pitch and other materials. With this general goal in mind, we present methods for preparing geometrically well-defined pitch particles attached to atomic force microscopy tips. This has enabled us to investigate the interactions between pitch and talc, an additive commonly used for pitch control. We have used model pitch particles consisting of one component only (abietic acid), a mixture of components (collophonium), and particles prepared from real pitch deposits. We show that the forces acting between pitch and talc are attractive and, once the initial approach is made, exert this attraction out to large distances of separation. We present evidence that the formation of bridging air bubbles or cavities is responsible for this interaction.     

Spin probes in structure studies of petroleum mesophase pitch

The ESR spectra of petroleum pitch labeled with the stable copper-porphyrin complex and changes in the spectra due to pyrolysis are analyzed. It is concluded that the functions of carriers and traps for unpaired electrons in mesophase pitch are performed by anisotropic associates or crystallites sized about 2.0 nm. The intermodular interactions between the parallel layers of anisotropic associates may be significant. They increase when the molecular associates pass to the paramagnetic state and determine the preferable packing of the paramagnetic crystallites one over another. Translated fromZhurnal Strukturnoi Khimii, Vol. 38, No. 5, pp. 902–907, September-October, 1997.     

C12-m-C12型阳离子Gemini表面活性剂在煤沥青表面的润湿性

利用座滴法和电泳法研究了阳离子Gemini表面活性剂C₁₂-m-C₁₂·2Br^-(m=4、6、8、10)在煤沥青表面的润湿性质及吸附机理。结果表明, 表面张力均随表面活性剂浓度的增大而减小, 超过临界胶束浓度(CMC)后趋于平稳, 接触角θ和铺展系数S的变化趋势与表面张力类似; 在所研究浓度范围内,C₁₂-10-C₁₂型表面活性剂的γ_lg~cosθ曲线符合Zisman理论, 且侵湿功(W_i)与表面张力也呈线性关系; 煤沥青表面的Zeta电位随表面活性剂浓度的增加从负电变为正电,最后趋于平稳, 且零电位对应的浓度比CMC至少低一个数量级; C₁₂-8-C₁₂型Gemini表面活性剂能显著改变煤沥青表面的润湿性. 由Gemini表面活性剂在煤沥青表面润湿结果及Zeta电位可以看出, C₁₂-m-C₁₂型Gemini表面活性剂在煤沥青表面的润湿是静电作用和范德华吸附共同作用的结果; 润湿过程可分为三个阶段。