Twisted but never bitter: Spontaneous formation of chiral structures from achiral liquid-crystalline molecules

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• Prof. Mark R. Wilson, Department of Chemistry, University of Durham
• Tuesday 22 January 2019, 14:00-15:00
• Mech Eng - G29.

If you have a question about this talk, please contact Dr Dwaipayan Chakrabarti.

I2S Seminar hosted by Dr Dwaipayan Chakrabarti

Chirality is ubiquitous in liquid crystal systems from chiral phases to the humble twisted nematic display. Back in 1888, Friedrich Reinitzer discovered the first liquid crystal from a derivative of cholesterol. The molecules Reinitzer worked with were chiral and it turned out that this chirality was transmitted to the whole phase. Hence, the first liquid crystal phase discovered was itself chiral: the cholesteric (chiral nematic) phase.

Intriguingly, liquid crystals can manifest chirality without the molecules themselves being chiral. In fact, under the right conditions, achiral molecules can give rise to chiral structures in a number of ways! This emergent chirality is a fascinating phenomenon and this talk describes our attempts to use computer simulation models to understand what happens in these systems from a molecular viewpoint.

This talk is part of the School of Chemistry Seminars series.

This talk is included in these lists:

• Mech Eng - G29
• School of Chemistry Seminars

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