Effect of polar intermolecular interactions on the elastic constants of bent-core nematics and the origin of the twist-bend phase

. A molecular theory of both elastic constants and the flexoelectric coefficients of bent-core nematic liquid crystals has been developed taking into account dipole-dipole interactions as well as polar interactions determined by the bent molecular shape. It has been shown that if polar interactions are neglected, the elastic constants are increasing monotonically with the decreasing temperature. On the other hand, dipolar interactions between bent-core molecules may result in a dramatic increase of the bend flexocoefficient. As a result, the flexoelectric contribution to the bend elastic constant increases significantly, and the bend elastic constant appears to be very small throughout the nematic range and may vanish at a certain temperature. This temperature may then be identified as a temperature of the elastic instability of the bent-core nematic phase which induces a transition into the modulated phases with bend deformations like recently reported twist-bend phase. The temperature variation of the elastic constants is qualitatively similar to the typical experimental data for bent-core nematics. Graphical abstract