ABSTRACT
Spontaneous deracemization or spontaneous chiral resolution of racemic molecules has been known to occur in crystals and at interfaces, but bent-shaped liquid crystals (LCs) are a first true fluid system to exhibit the spontaneous chiral symmetry breaking in bulk. There are several reports of chiral resolution in monolayers on different kinds of surfaces, where molecules themselves are not of chiral conformation, but the 2D crystal packing motif is chiral. This chapter describes reflection symmetry breaking in bent-shaped mesogenic phases, and then introduces some methods to control chirality. In addition, achiral bent-shaped molecules have an ability to enhance their chiral properties, when they are added to conventional chiral phases of rod-shaped molecules, such as cholesteric and smectic phases. In this way, bent-shaped molecules sometimes behave as chiral molecules despite being assumed to be nonchiral or racemic systems.
