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Invited Articles

Planar and Vertical Alignment of Rod-like and Bent-core Liquid Crystals Using Functionalized Indium Tin Oxide Substrates

, , , , , & show all
Pages 1246-1260 | Received 27 Aug 2021, Published online: 15 Nov 2021
 

ABSTRACT

Indium tin oxide (ITO) substrates are chemically modified with bent-shaped molecules and influence of these surface immobilised molecules on the alignment of bulk liquid crystal (LC) samples has been investigated. Bent-core (BC) compounds containing a dimethylchlorosilane moiety at the end of a terminal alkyl chain and a lateral alkyl chain are successfully attached to transparent conducting ITO substrates in an end-on (ITO-BC-t) and side-on (ITO-BC-l) oriented fashion to create stable permanent self-assembled BC layers on the substrates. Surface functionalization is thoroughly characterised and aligning ability of these BC-modified ITO substrates for orientation of bulk LC sample is evaluated for nematic phase of both rod-like and BCLC samples. The BC-modified substrates are effective in aligning the rod-like compounds in vertical (ITO-BC-t), planar orientations (ITO-BC-l) and the BC compounds in homeotropic (ITO-BC-t) alignment.

Graphical abstract

Acknowledgments

S.U. acknowledges the Science and Engineering Research Board (SERB), Department of Science and Technology, New Delhi (Grant No.ECR/2015/000419) for funding through Early Career Research award. B.S. thanks SERB, New Delhi, for the financial support. The authors also thank MHRD-RUSA 2.0, Department of Education, New Delhi (Letter no. F.24/51, 2014-U) and Department of Science and Technology, New Delhi (no. SR/PURSE Phase 2/38(G), dt 29.12.2020) for the funding.CECRI Manuscript Communication Number: CECRI/PESVC/Pubs./2020-042

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Supplementary material

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed here.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Department of Science and Technology, India [SR/PURSE Phase 2/38(G), dt 29.12.2020] and Science and Engineering Research Board [ECR/2015/000419].

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