Chiral ground states of ferroelectric liquid crystals. (https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/38513040/)

These scientists studied a special type of material called ferroelectric nematic liquid crystals. These materials are made up of tiny particles that have a specific arrangement in three dimensions, kind of like a pattern that goes in one direction. The scientists found that when these materials are in a flat shape and not forced to align in a certain way, they naturally form a twist pattern, like a spiral, with some parts twisting to the left and some to the right.

Even though this twist pattern can create some energy challenges in the material, they discovered that adding certain ions to the material can help make these twists weaker. This study shows that just the way the particles are arranged in these materials can cause them to have this twisty shape, without needing any special chemical structures to make them twist.

Kumari P., Basnet B., Lavrentovich MO., Lavrentovich OD. Chiral ground states of ferroelectric liquid crystals. Science. 2024 Mar 22;383(6689):1364-1368. doi: 10.1126/science.adl0834. Epub 2024 Mar 21.