Chemical and physical aspects of recent bent-shaped liquid crystals exhibiting chiral and achiral mesophases

Bent-core liquid crystals (BLCs) are a class of thermotropic LCs that exhibit chiral and polar superstructures in achiral molecules. Progress in design and synthesis of novel bent-core architectures in search of unconventional properties enriched the field of BLCs. Here, we present a comprehensive review of the recent bent-shaped LCs, discuss relevant simulation and theoretical models, which draws a comparison to experimental results, survey the advances in the molecular design and structure-property correlation, and predict the future directions from chemical and physical perspectives. This review article is dedicated in commemoration of Prof. B K Sadashiva, a pioneer chemist who made a notable contribution to the field of bent-core liquid crystals.