Liquid Crystalline Blue Phases - Liquid Crystalline Functional Assemblies and Their Supramolecular Structures - page 108

Fig. 8 Confocal laser scanning micrograph of polymer-stabilized blue phase I [16]
ders exist at right angles to each other. The symmetry of the disclination
alignments is body-centered cubic in BP I and simple cubic in BP II. The
disclination core is estimated to have a diameter of about 10 nm. Inside such
a core, it is hypothesized that there is a disordered arrangement of molecules,
as in an isotropic phase.
Recently, direct observations of the blue phase lattice structure have been
attempted by freeze-fracture electron microscopy [13, 14] (Fig. 7), atomic
force microscopy for quenched blue phases [15], and confocal laser scanning
microscopy [16] (Fig. 8).
Researchers have confirmed the existence of BP III, the structure of which
is predicted to be more amorphous with the short-distance order of double
twist alone. However, further details of this phase have yet to be cleared.
6
New Materials Exhibiting Blue Phases
Recent progress in material science, notably with the development of new
materials exhibiting blue phases, has generated a renewed interest in the
incorporation of the functional properties with the unique structure of frus-
trated phases. Synthesis of a monosubstituted ferrocene-based chiral Schiff 's
base derivative which exhibits TGBA and blue phases has been reported [17]
(Fig. 9). Other metallomesogens leading to blue phases have been found for
palladium complexes [18] (Fig. 10). Optically active materials incorporating