Molecular Structure of Canonical Liquid Crystal Interfaces
| Autor: | Mohammad Rahimi, Wei Bu, Zhu Liang, Benoît Roux, Mark L. Schlossman, Binhua Lin, Monirosadat Sadati, Cem Erol, Juan J. de Pablo, Emre Sevgen, Nicholas L. Abbott, Nader Taheri Qazvini, Hadi Ramezani-Dakhel |
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| Rok vydání: | 2017 |
| Předmět: |
Biaxial nematic
Chemistry Isotropy 02 engineering and technology General Chemistry 010402 general chemistry 021001 nanoscience & nanotechnology 01 natural sciences Biochemistry Catalysis Synchrotron 0104 chemical sciences law.invention Crystal Molecular dynamics Crystallography Colloid and Surface Chemistry Liquid crystal law Chemical physics Phase (matter) Molecule 0210 nano-technology |
| Zdroj: | Journal of the American Chemical Society. 139:3841-3850 |
| ISSN: | 1520-5126 0002-7863 |
| DOI: | 10.1021/jacs.7b00167 |
| Popis: | Numerous applications of liquid crystals rely on control of molecular orientation at an interface. However, little is known about the precise molecular structure of such interfaces. In this work, synchrotron X-ray reflectivity measurements, accompanied by large-scale atomistic molecular dynamics simulations, are used for the first time to reconstruct the air-liquid crystal interface of a nematic material, namely, 4-pentyl-4'-cyanobiphenyl (5CB). The results are compared to those for 4-octyl-4'-cyanobiphenyl (8CB) which, in addition to adopting isotropic and nematic states, can also form a smectic phase. Our findings indicate that the air interface imprints a highly ordered structure into the material; such a local structure then propagates well into the bulk of the liquid crystal, particularly for nematic and smectic phases. |
| Databáze: | OpenAIRE |
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