Triclinic Liquid Crystal of Counter-Rotating Squashed Double Helices in a Side-Chain Polymer

A polysiloxane with tris-alkoxy-ended rod-like mesogenic side groups forms an unusually low-symmetry antiferrochiral liquid crystal, space group P1̅, consisting of distorted left- and right-handed double-helices containing alternating splay and twist sections. The unit cell contains two double-helical columns. On faster cooling, a closely related metastable orthorhombic structure is formed, symmetry Fddd, with 8 double helices per cell.