Ferroelectric state induced in mixture of dimer liquid crystal and perfluorooctanoic acid

ABSTRACTPhase transitions and electro-optical effects are studied in a nanocomposites, grown by mixing heptyloxybenzoic acid (7OBA), displaying hydrogen bonded dimeric liquid crystal (LC) state, with perfluorooctanoic acid. Due to the interaction with the dopant structural units the dimer rings of the LC matrix bent. As a result, transitions from achiral to chiral states, including ferroelectric smectic CG with the lowest C1 symmetry take place.