화학공학소재연구정보센터
Chemical Physics Letters, Vol.696, 112-118, 2018
Chiral organosilica particles and their use as inducers of conformational deracemization of liquid crystal phases
Chiral organosilica particles of size similar to 200 nm were synthesized from an enantio-pure multi-armed chiral D-maltose organosilane precursor in the absence of co-condensation with an achiral monomer. Two distinct experiments were performed to demonstrate the particles' ability to induce conformational deracemization of a host liquid crystal. The first involves an electric field-induced tilt of the liquid crystal director in the deracemized smectic-A phase. The other involves domain wall curvature separating left-and right-handed liquid crystal helical pitch domains imposed by the cells' substrates. The results demonstrate unequivocally that enantio-pure organosilica nanoparticles can be synthesized and can induce chirality in a host. (C) 2018 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.