Fig. 5

Chiral Nematic (cholesteric phase) liquid crystal forming cholesteric liquid crystals with helical structure. a cholesterol derivative with eight chiral centers (*), (b) spatial and directional arrangement of chiral molecules (Red rods); each layer is rotating with respect to the ones above and below it to give a spiral structure, i.e., they have a preferential twist arrangement with respect to one another; (c) long-range orientational ordered (n) along a preferred direction of cholesteric phase; where n, P, d, and θ indicate, orientational direction of molecule about a common axis (director), pitch (the distance along the sinusoidal over which the director rotates by 2π or shift in alignment), distance (P/2), rotational (twisting) angle of the molecules and chiral centers, respectively