Phase transition analysis of V-shaped liquid crystal: Combined temperature-dependent FTIR and density functional theory approach

Temperature-dependent Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) combined with density functional theory (DFT) is employed to study the mechanism of phase transitions of V-shaped bent-core liquid crystal. Since it has a large number of flexible bonds, one-dimensional potential energy scan (PES) was performed on the flexible bonds and predicted the most stable conformer I. A detailed analysis of vibrational normal modes of conformer I have been done on the basis of potential energy distribution. The good agreement between the calculated spectrum of conformer I and observed FTIR spectrum at room temperature validates our theoretical structure model. Furthermore, the prominent changes observed in the stretching vibrational bands of CH3/CH2, C=O, ring CC, ring CO, ring CH in-plane bending, and ring CH out-of-plane bending at Iso -> nematic phase transition (at 155 degrees C) have been illustrated. However, the minor changes in the spectral features observed for the other phase transitions might be due to the shape or bulkiness of molecules. Combined FTIR and PES study beautifully explained the dynamics of the molecules, molecular realignment H-bonding, and conformational changes at the phase transitions. (C) 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.