title: Insertion of liquid crystal molecules into hydrocarbon monolayers.
abstract: Atomistic molecular dynamics simulations were carried out to investigate the molecular mechanisms of vertical surface alignment of liquid crystals. We study the insertion of nCB (4-Cyano-4'-n-biphenyl) molecules with n = 0,…,6 into a bent-core liquid crystal monolayer that was recently found to provide good vertical alignment for liquid crystals. The results suggest a complex-free energy landscape for the liquid crystal within the layer. The preferred insertion direction of the nCB molecules (core or tail first) varies with n, which can be explained by entropic considerations. The role of the dipole moments was found to be negligible. As vertical alignment is the leading form of present day liquid crystal displays (LCD), these results will help guide improvement of the LCD technology, as well as lend insight into the more general problem of insertion of biological and other molecules into lipid and surfactant layers.
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics, Kent State University, Kent, Ohio 44242, USA.
authors.forename: Piotr
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Popov
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemical Engineering, Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio 44106, USA.
authors.forename: Daniel J
authors.initials: DJ
authors.lastname: Lacks
authors.affiliation: Liquid Crystal Institute, Kent State University, Kent, Ohio 44242-0001, USA.
authors.forename: Antal
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Jákli
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics, Kent State University, Kent, Ohio 44242, USA.
authors.forename: Elizabeth K
authors.initials: EK
authors.lastname: Mann