Surface Induced Ordering on Model Liquid Crystalline Dendrimers

TL;DR

This study uses Monte Carlo simulations to explore how liquid crystalline dendrimers arrange and behave on flat surfaces under various conditions, revealing how surface interactions influence their structure and ordering.

Contribution

Introduces a coarse-grained force field and systematically investigates surface-induced ordering of LCDrs under different anchoring conditions and parameters.

Findings

Different stable LCDr states depend on anchoring and temperature.

Surface interactions significantly influence LCDr topology and ordering.

Generation and core functionality affect surface-induced ordering.

Abstract

We present results from Monte Carlo simulations of liquid crystalline dendrimers (LCDrs) adsorbed on flat, impenetrable substrates. A tractable coarse grained force field for the inter-dendritic and the dendrimer-substrate interactions is introduced. We investigate the conformational and ordering properties of single, end-functionalized LCDrs under homeotropic, random (or degenerate) planar and unidirectional planar aligning substrates. Depending on the anchoring conditions of the mesogenic units of the LCDr and on temperature a variety of stable LCDr states, differing in their topology, are observed and analysed. The influence of the denritic generation and core functionality on the surface-induced ordering of the LCDrs are examined.