Tailoring the dielectric and ferroelectric response of mixtures containing bent-core liquid crystals through light-irradiation and composition

Jasmin Liebsch; Rebecca Strachan; Sivanujan Suthaharan; Ivan Dominguez-Candela; Carlota Auria-Soro; Andres San-Millan; Rebecca Walker; Bhaskar Chilukuri; M. Blanca Ros; Alfonso Martinez-Felipe

doi:10.1016/j.molliq.2024.124371

Tailoring the dielectric and ferroelectric response of mixtures containing bent-core liquid crystals through light-irradiation and composition

Jasmin Liebsch, Rebecca Strachan, Sivanujan Suthaharan, Ivan Dominguez-Candela, Carlota Auria-Soro, Andres San-Millan, Rebecca Walker, Bhaskar Chilukuri, M. Blanca Ros, Alfonso Martinez-Felipe^* (Corresponding Author)

^*Corresponding author for this work

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Abstract

We report the mesomorphic behaviour, dielectric and ferroelectric properties, and computational modelling of binary mixtures containing two bent-core liquid crystals: the so-called NG75-COO (3,4́- Bis[4-(4-n-tetradecyloxybenzoyloxy)benzoyloxy]biphenyl), which forms smectic phases, and IP31- AzB (3,4′ - Bis[4-(4-n-tetradecyloxyphenylazo)benzoyloxy]biphenyl), which forms columnar phases. The phase diagram, assessed by polarised optical microscopy, shows that the binary mixtures retain the mesophase behaviour of the major component, whilst the equimolar mixture displays smectic-type phases. Dielectric and ferroelectric analyses were carried out on samples containing 10%, 50%, and 90% of IP31-AzB (molar %), and we also investigated structure–property correlations by differential functional theory. The NG75-COO/IP31-AzB mixtures undergo strong dielectric and ferroelectric response due to the presence of highly polarisable groups in the bent-core components, particularly at the ester groups. All the mixtures under study exhibit light-responsiveness induced by reversible E-to-Z photoisomerization (trans-to-cis) of the azobenzene group in IP31-AzB, together with an increase in the molecular dipole moment. The potential to tune the phase behaviour of the mixtures, as well as their dielectric and ferroelectric responses, are investigated by light irradiation under different conditions of intensity and temperature.

Original language	English
Article number	124371
Number of pages	11
Journal	Journal of molecular liquids
Volume	399
Early online date	3 Mar 2024
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1016/j.molliq.2024.124371
Publication status	Published - 1 Apr 2024

Bibliographical note

Open access via the Elsevier Agreement
IDC would like to thank the Universitat Politècnica de València (UPV), for the FPI grant (PAID-2019-SP20190013), the Generalitat Valenciana (GVA) and the European Social Fund (ESF), for the FPI grant (ACIF/2020/233) and the mobility grant (CIBEFP/2022/45). AMF would like to thank the Carnegie Trust for the Universities of Scotland, for the Research Incentive Grant RIG008586, the Royal Society and Specac Ltd., for the Research Grant RGS\R1\201397, the Royal Society of Chemistry for the award of a mobility grant (M19- 0000), the Scottish Government and the Royal Society of Edinburgh for the award of a SAPHIRE project, NHS Scotland for the 20/016 R&D Endowments Award, and the University of Aberdeen for the CF10801-10 and CF10723-44 pump priming grants. The authors from INMA greatly appreciate financial support from projects of the Spanish Government PID2021-122882NB-I00 [MCIU/AEI/FEDER, UE] and the Gobierno de Aragón/FEDER (research group E47_23R); and C.A-S for the FPI Fellowship PRE2019-090773. Thanks are given to the nuclear magnetic resonance, mass spectrometry, and thermal analysis services of CEQMA (Univ. Zaragoza-CSIC). BC is grateful to the National Science Foundation for supporting this work under grant no. CHE- 2306317. BC also thanks Illinois State University (ISU) for their financial support through university research grant (URG). Computational work is performed using resources from High Performance Computing (HPC) at Illinois State University.

Data Availability Statement

Data will be made available on request.

Keywords

Azobenzenes
Bent-core liquid crystals
Ferroelectricity
Dielectric spectroscopy
Energy storage
Density functional theory

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Liebsch_etal_JML_Tailoring_the_Dielectric_VOR
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Cite this

Liebsch, J., Strachan, R., Suthaharan, S., Dominguez-Candela, I., Auria-Soro, C., San-Millan, A., Walker, R., Chilukuri, B., Blanca Ros, M., & Martinez-Felipe, A. (2024). Tailoring the dielectric and ferroelectric response of mixtures containing bent-core liquid crystals through light-irradiation and composition. Journal of molecular liquids, 399, Article 124371. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.molliq.2024.124371

Liebsch, J, Strachan, R, Suthaharan, S, Dominguez-Candela, I, Auria-Soro, C, San-Millan, A, Walker, R, Chilukuri, B, Blanca Ros, M & Martinez-Felipe, A 2024, 'Tailoring the dielectric and ferroelectric response of mixtures containing bent-core liquid crystals through light-irradiation and composition', Journal of molecular liquids, vol. 399, 124371. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.molliq.2024.124371

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title = "Tailoring the dielectric and ferroelectric response of mixtures containing bent-core liquid crystals through light-irradiation and composition",

abstract = "We report the mesomorphic behaviour, dielectric and ferroelectric properties, and computational modelling of binary mixtures containing two bent-core liquid crystals: the so-called NG75-COO (3,{\'4}- Bis[4-(4-n-tetradecyloxybenzoyloxy)benzoyloxy]biphenyl), which forms smectic phases, and IP31- AzB (3,4′ - Bis[4-(4-n-tetradecyloxyphenylazo)benzoyloxy]biphenyl), which forms columnar phases. The phase diagram, assessed by polarised optical microscopy, shows that the binary mixtures retain the mesophase behaviour of the major component, whilst the equimolar mixture displays smectic-type phases. Dielectric and ferroelectric analyses were carried out on samples containing 10%, 50%, and 90% of IP31-AzB (molar %), and we also investigated structure–property correlations by differential functional theory. The NG75-COO/IP31-AzB mixtures undergo strong dielectric and ferroelectric response due to the presence of highly polarisable groups in the bent-core components, particularly at the ester groups. All the mixtures under study exhibit light-responsiveness induced by reversible E-to-Z photoisomerization (trans-to-cis) of the azobenzene group in IP31-AzB, together with an increase in the molecular dipole moment. The potential to tune the phase behaviour of the mixtures, as well as their dielectric and ferroelectric responses, are investigated by light irradiation under different conditions of intensity and temperature.",

keywords = "Azobenzenes, Bent-core liquid crystals, Ferroelectricity, Dielectric spectroscopy, Energy storage, Density functional theory",

author = "Jasmin Liebsch and Rebecca Strachan and Sivanujan Suthaharan and Ivan Dominguez-Candela and Carlota Auria-Soro and Andres San-Millan and Rebecca Walker and Bhaskar Chilukuri and {Blanca Ros}, M. and Alfonso Martinez-Felipe",

note = "Open access via the Elsevier Agreement IDC would like to thank the Universitat Polit{\`e}cnica de Val{\`e}ncia (UPV), for the FPI grant (PAID-2019-SP20190013), the Generalitat Valenciana (GVA) and the European Social Fund (ESF), for the FPI grant (ACIF/2020/233) and the mobility grant (CIBEFP/2022/45). AMF would like to thank the Carnegie Trust for the Universities of Scotland, for the Research Incentive Grant RIG008586, the Royal Society and Specac Ltd., for the Research Grant RGS\R1\201397, the Royal Society of Chemistry for the award of a mobility grant (M19- 0000), the Scottish Government and the Royal Society of Edinburgh for the award of a SAPHIRE project, NHS Scotland for the 20/016 R&D Endowments Award, and the University of Aberdeen for the CF10801-10 and CF10723-44 pump priming grants. The authors from INMA greatly appreciate financial support from projects of the Spanish Government PID2021-122882NB-I00 [MCIU/AEI/FEDER, UE] and the Gobierno de Arag{\'o}n/FEDER (research group E47_23R); and C.A-S for the FPI Fellowship PRE2019-090773. Thanks are given to the nuclear magnetic resonance, mass spectrometry, and thermal analysis services of CEQMA (Univ. Zaragoza-CSIC). BC is grateful to the National Science Foundation for supporting this work under grant no. CHE- 2306317. BC also thanks Illinois State University (ISU) for their financial support through university research grant (URG). Computational work is performed using resources from High Performance Computing (HPC) at Illinois State University.",

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T1 - Tailoring the dielectric and ferroelectric response of mixtures containing bent-core liquid crystals through light-irradiation and composition

AU - Liebsch, Jasmin

AU - Strachan, Rebecca

AU - Suthaharan, Sivanujan

AU - Dominguez-Candela, Ivan

AU - Auria-Soro, Carlota

AU - San-Millan, Andres

AU - Walker, Rebecca

AU - Chilukuri, Bhaskar

AU - Blanca Ros, M.

AU - Martinez-Felipe, Alfonso

N1 - Open access via the Elsevier Agreement IDC would like to thank the Universitat Politècnica de València (UPV), for the FPI grant (PAID-2019-SP20190013), the Generalitat Valenciana (GVA) and the European Social Fund (ESF), for the FPI grant (ACIF/2020/233) and the mobility grant (CIBEFP/2022/45). AMF would like to thank the Carnegie Trust for the Universities of Scotland, for the Research Incentive Grant RIG008586, the Royal Society and Specac Ltd., for the Research Grant RGS\R1\201397, the Royal Society of Chemistry for the award of a mobility grant (M19- 0000), the Scottish Government and the Royal Society of Edinburgh for the award of a SAPHIRE project, NHS Scotland for the 20/016 R&D Endowments Award, and the University of Aberdeen for the CF10801-10 and CF10723-44 pump priming grants. The authors from INMA greatly appreciate financial support from projects of the Spanish Government PID2021-122882NB-I00 [MCIU/AEI/FEDER, UE] and the Gobierno de Aragón/FEDER (research group E47_23R); and C.A-S for the FPI Fellowship PRE2019-090773. Thanks are given to the nuclear magnetic resonance, mass spectrometry, and thermal analysis services of CEQMA (Univ. Zaragoza-CSIC). BC is grateful to the National Science Foundation for supporting this work under grant no. CHE- 2306317. BC also thanks Illinois State University (ISU) for their financial support through university research grant (URG). Computational work is performed using resources from High Performance Computing (HPC) at Illinois State University.

PY - 2024/4/1

Y1 - 2024/4/1

N2 - We report the mesomorphic behaviour, dielectric and ferroelectric properties, and computational modelling of binary mixtures containing two bent-core liquid crystals: the so-called NG75-COO (3,4́- Bis[4-(4-n-tetradecyloxybenzoyloxy)benzoyloxy]biphenyl), which forms smectic phases, and IP31- AzB (3,4′ - Bis[4-(4-n-tetradecyloxyphenylazo)benzoyloxy]biphenyl), which forms columnar phases. The phase diagram, assessed by polarised optical microscopy, shows that the binary mixtures retain the mesophase behaviour of the major component, whilst the equimolar mixture displays smectic-type phases. Dielectric and ferroelectric analyses were carried out on samples containing 10%, 50%, and 90% of IP31-AzB (molar %), and we also investigated structure–property correlations by differential functional theory. The NG75-COO/IP31-AzB mixtures undergo strong dielectric and ferroelectric response due to the presence of highly polarisable groups in the bent-core components, particularly at the ester groups. All the mixtures under study exhibit light-responsiveness induced by reversible E-to-Z photoisomerization (trans-to-cis) of the azobenzene group in IP31-AzB, together with an increase in the molecular dipole moment. The potential to tune the phase behaviour of the mixtures, as well as their dielectric and ferroelectric responses, are investigated by light irradiation under different conditions of intensity and temperature.

AB - We report the mesomorphic behaviour, dielectric and ferroelectric properties, and computational modelling of binary mixtures containing two bent-core liquid crystals: the so-called NG75-COO (3,4́- Bis[4-(4-n-tetradecyloxybenzoyloxy)benzoyloxy]biphenyl), which forms smectic phases, and IP31- AzB (3,4′ - Bis[4-(4-n-tetradecyloxyphenylazo)benzoyloxy]biphenyl), which forms columnar phases. The phase diagram, assessed by polarised optical microscopy, shows that the binary mixtures retain the mesophase behaviour of the major component, whilst the equimolar mixture displays smectic-type phases. Dielectric and ferroelectric analyses were carried out on samples containing 10%, 50%, and 90% of IP31-AzB (molar %), and we also investigated structure–property correlations by differential functional theory. The NG75-COO/IP31-AzB mixtures undergo strong dielectric and ferroelectric response due to the presence of highly polarisable groups in the bent-core components, particularly at the ester groups. All the mixtures under study exhibit light-responsiveness induced by reversible E-to-Z photoisomerization (trans-to-cis) of the azobenzene group in IP31-AzB, together with an increase in the molecular dipole moment. The potential to tune the phase behaviour of the mixtures, as well as their dielectric and ferroelectric responses, are investigated by light irradiation under different conditions of intensity and temperature.

KW - Azobenzenes

KW - Bent-core liquid crystals

KW - Ferroelectricity

KW - Dielectric spectroscopy

KW - Energy storage

KW - Density functional theory

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DO - 10.1016/j.molliq.2024.124371

M3 - Article

SN - 0167-7322

VL - 399

JO - Journal of molecular liquids

JF - Journal of molecular liquids

M1 - 124371

ER -

Tailoring the dielectric and ferroelectric response of mixtures containing bent-core liquid crystals through light-irradiation and composition

Abstract

Bibliographical note

Data Availability Statement

Keywords

Access to Document

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