Alignment by Langmuir/Schaefer Monolayers of Bent-Core Liquid Crystals

Abstract

Bulk alignment of liquid crystalline phases is achieved using self-organized thin films of bent-core mesogens transferred to a glass substrate by Inverse-Langmuir-Schaefer (ILS). We discuss the importance of the architecture of the aligning molecules (hydrophilic/hydrophobic balance for film stability as well as other structural factors) and show the dependence of the density of the monolayer with the alignment induced by it. These results are compared with molecular simulations for further understanding of molecular packing and interfacial interactions.

Acknowledgments

This work was funded by NSF grants DMR-0907055 and DMR-0906852. We would like to thank the Ohio Supercomputer Center for their allocation of computing time used in this study.