Spectroscopic Studies of BA Class Liquid Crystals in the 6–15 THz Range Using the Fourier Transform Infrared (FT-IR) Method

Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy was performed for two structurally similar liquid crystals: 4-octyloxybenzoic acid and 4-decyloxybenzoic acid in 6–15 THz range. Density functional theory modeling at PBE0/def2-TZVPP level was used to assign the vibrational modes to each observed absorption peak. We observed six peaks that are common for both liquid crystals, assigned to the same vibrational modes and appearing at similar energies. Each of the samples also had additional peaks unique to itself. A strong absorption peak appears at about 280 cm–1 for both samples; however, it corresponds to different vibrational modes for the two samples. This work shows that the spectroscopy in this often-neglected frequency range can easily distinguish structurally similar compounds.