Hydrogen bonding and the design of twist-bend nematogens

The phase properties of equimolar mixtures consisting of a hydrogen bond donor, a 4-alkoxybenzoic acid (nOBA), and one of two different stilbazole-based hydrogen bond acceptors, either 4-[(E)-2-(4-{[6-(4′-methoxy[1,1′-biphenyl]-4-yl)hexyl]oxy}phenyl)-ethenyl]-pyridine (1OB6OS) or 4-[(E)-4′-(6-{4-[(E)-2-(pyridin-4-yl)ethenyl]phenoxy}hexyl)-[1,1′-biphenyl]-4-carbonitrile (CB6OS) are reported. Neither hydrogen bond acceptor exhibits liquid crystal behaviour whereas the nOBA compounds show smectic and/or nematic behaviour depending on the length of the alkyloxy chain. For the complexes of an nOBA with n = 1–5, both conventional nematic and twist-bend nematic phases were observed, while for n ≥ 6 smectic phases emerged and the twist-bend nematic phase was extinguished. The CB6OS-nOBA mixtures may exhibit the heliconical smectic CTB phase. The local molecular arrangement in the two sets of mixtures are similar and changes on increasing n but this is not reflected in the nematic-isotropic transition temperatures. Birefringence studies of the mixtures are reported. In general the behaviour of the hydrogen-bonded mixtures is similar to that of their covalently bonded counterparts.