Influence of chiral monomer concentration on thermo-optical properties of glass-forming cyclic siloxane side chain liquid crystal oligomers

A series of new cyclic siloxane side-chain liquid crystal oligomers containing chiral (-)-menthyl monomer (M1) and achiral benzene methyl ester monomer (M2), denoted as O1–O4, were successfully synthesised. Their chemical structures were confirmed by FT-IR and 1H NMR spectra. Phase transition behaviours and phase structures were investigated by differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) and polarised optical microscopy (POM). Bragg-selective...