Unusual properties of a bent-core liquid-crystalline fluid

In our investigations of a family of achiral bent-core bis-(phenyl) oxadiazole derivatives, we observed some unusual properties of the nematic phase. These include evidence of segregation into domains of opposite handedness and the formation of clusters, nematic phase biaxiality, and a strongly kinetically governed phase behaviour, which leads to the display of unique filament structures at the onset of new order. We suggest that the combination of a deviant calamitic molecular shape with a considerable transverse dipole leads to an unusual strength and combination of molecular interactions, and as a consequence these nematic materials need to be considered as fluctuating and dynamically changing, multi-hierarchical fluids. © 2009 The Royal Society of Chemistry.