Effect of non-mesogenic chiral terphenylate on the formulation of room temperature ferroelectric liquid crystal mixtures suitable for display applications

Abstract

By varying the concentration of a chiral terphenylate dopant in a four-component achiral phenyl pyrimidine-based host mixture we have formulated six ferroelectric liquid crystal mixtures. Though the dopant is non-mesogenic it is observed that only 2 wt% of it induces polarity in the host mixture at 32 °C. With increasing concentration, the mixtures show ferroelectric behavior even below ambient temperature down to at least 12 °C. Optical polarizing microscopy, differential scanning calorimetry, dielectric and electro-optic studies reveal that with respect to temperature range, phase sequence, spontaneous polarization, optical tilt angle and switching time the formulated mixtures are suitable for ferroelectric based liquid crystal displays.