Steroid motor: dynamics of cholesteric helix induction in the nematic droplet

A nematic liquid crystal can be converted into a cholesteric phase by a chiral dopant, and the cholesteric pitch can be changed by its photochemical transformations [1]. For the first time we investigate the dynamics of the cholesteric phase induction using seven steroids (vitamin D isomers and related compounds) as chiral dopants. Here we report the new effect of rotation of a rod-like steroid crystal (0.1-1 mm length) when it is placed at the surface of a nematic drop and its dissolution course was followed with a polarizing microscope. For all the compounds univocal correspondence was noticed between the crystal rotation direction, the helicity of the molecular steroid ring system [2] and the sign of the cholesteric macrohelix determined by the Cano-Grandjean method [3]. No rotation was observed in the isotropic phase.