Origin of helical morphology of polyacetylene fibrils synthesized in chiral nematic liquid crystal solvents

Polyacetylene fibrils synthesized in chiral nematic (N*) liquid crystals (LCs) as a polymerization solvent show clockwise helical morphology when a clockwise N* LC is used as a solvent and vice versa. To explain the concordant result in terms of screw direction, a model is proposed in which the conjugated molecule makes a loose loop with a radius of micrometer order, twisting clockwise or counterclockwise. The observed twisted morphology of the fibril can be explained by the condensation of many loosely looped molecular chains grown in a twisted domain of the N* LC solvent.