Download or read book Structure and Rheology of Some Bent Core Liquid Crystals written by Christopher Allen Bailey and published by . This book was released on 2008 with total page 244 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Liquid crystal phases composed of bent core molecules have been a fascinating topic in soft matter physics over the last decade. These materials which can form spontaneous polarizations (ferroelectricity) and chiral symmetry breaking with non-chiral molecules incited much interest in the scientific community. Since these early days, much research has been done on the characterization of these phases and their physical properties. In this work, we studied some of these properties by measuring the structural and viscous behavior using small amounts of material. The non-Newtonian flow characteristics of several bent core liquid crystals are characterized using a nanoliter viscometer. We show that many of these phases have viscoelastic behaviors which are fundamentally different from those observed in classical rod like liquid crystals. Finally, we studied the elasticity and dynamics of freestanding filaments which are stable structures in some bent core smectic phases. Characterization of their elasticity by resonance measurements and other techniques are in agreement with models designed to explain their microscopic smectic structures. We show that their viscosity, filament structure and stability, and microscopic structures can be understood by considering the role of steric interactions between molecules and the frustration thereof.