We investigate two unusual phenomena in self-assembly of anisotropic molecules from isotropic (Iso) melt: a heat-capacity (Cp) maximum and spontaneous formation of the recently discovered chiral liquid (Iso*). Based on experiments on new nonchiral monomers, dimers, and polymers, we construct a statistical theory tha...

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1002/anie.202505548

A polysiloxane with tris-alkoxy-ended rod-like mesogenic side groups forms an unusually low-symmetry antiferrochiral liquid crystal, space group P1̅, consisting of distorted left- and right-handed double-helices containing alternating splay and twist sections. The unit cell contains two double-helical columns. On f...

https://pubs.acs.org/doi/pdf/10.1021/jacs.5c02663