Polar liquid crystals are key components of mixtures for liquid crystals display (LCD) technologies and compounds that exhibit high dielectric anisotropy (Δε), moderate TNI, and have minimal effect on material’s viscosity are of particular interest for technological applications.
![High Δε nematic liquid crystals: fluxional zwitterions of the [closo-1-CB9H10]− cluster](https://blogs.rsc.org/jm/files/2010/10/002.jpg "002")
Bryan Ringstrand and Piotr Kaszynski have developed a new class of nematics with high Δε for display applications and characterized them by thermal and dielectric methods in mixtures with 3 nematic hosts. These sulfonium zwitterion esters represent a new concept in designing polar additives. They combine the polar zwitterionic fragment that gives rise to a large positive Δε, and shape-shifting ability, which results in high solubility, high effective electric dipole moment µeff, and relatively low contribution to rotational viscosity γ.
Interested in knowing more? Read the full article here; it will be free to access until the 3rd November.
