Nanoscaled Discotic Liquid Crystal/Polymer Systems : Confinement Effects on Morphology and Thermodynamics

Title data

Stillings, Christopher ; Martin, Emily ; Steinhart, Martin ; Pettau, Robin ; Paraknowitsch, J. ; Geuss, M. ; Schmidt, Jessica ; Germano, G. ; Schmidt, Hans-Werner ; Gösele, Ulrich ; Wendorff, Joachim H.:
Nanoscaled Discotic Liquid Crystal/Polymer Systems : Confinement Effects on Morphology and Thermodynamics.
In: Molecular Crystals and Liquid Crystals. Vol. 495 (2008) Issue 1 . - pp. 285-293.
ISSN 1563-5287
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/15421400802430349

Project information

Abstract in another language

We have studied the influence of geometric confinement imposed on the supramolecular architecture of a discotic model compound confined to self-ordered nanoporous alumina. We systematically varied the pore diameter and the chemical nature of the pore walls and studied the systems thus obtained by means of wide angle X-ray diffraction and differential scanning calorimetry. A dominant planar core phase was found for high-energy pore walls consisting of alumina, whereas no apparent texture was present in the case of pore walls coated with non-polar poly(p-xylylene). Inside pores of 35 and 180 nm in diameter, pronounced geometric confinement effects and interfacial effects influence the structure formation. Additionally, we performed molecular dynamics simulations using a coarse-grained discotic potential.