Spontaneous formation of a chiral structure in an achiral banana-shaped molecular system

We have synthesized a new banana-shaped compound, having naphthalene as a c enter of molecule. This compound exhibited an unconventional smectic textur e by optical microscopy where the growth of small-fractal domains was obser ved. Moreover, two different chiral domains were found to form in the smect ic phase as well as in the Smblue phase which can be considered to possess a helical structure. The derails will be discussed.