Molecular Crystals and Liquid Crystals Science and Technology. Section A. Molecular Crystals and Liquid Crystals, Vol.346, 63-75, 2000
Spontaneous formation of a chiral structure in an achiral banana-shaped molecular system
We have synthesized a new banana-shaped compound, having naphthalene as a center of molecule. This compound exhibited an unconventional smectic texture by optical microscopy where the growth of small-fractal domains was observed. Moreover, two different chiral domains were found to form in the smectic phase as well as in the Smblue phase which can be considered to possess a helical structure. The derails will be discussed.