Rotational Diffusion of Guest Molecules Confined in Uni-directional Nanopores

Molecular Dynamics of a Liquid Crystal with Highly Ordered Smectic E Phase under Different Forms of Confinement

“…It was concluded that a change in the transition temperature origins from two competing effects: orientational order locally imposed by pore surface that increases the transition temperature and disordering effect resulting from the elastic forces and rearrangement of defect lines which cause the reduction of the transition temperature. One of our previous papers [1,2] discusses the dynamics and morphology of 4-heptyl-4′-isothiocyanatobiphenyl (7BT) confined in silica pores with average diameters of 4, 6, 7.5, 9.5 and 10.5 nm. While 7BT in bulk demonstrates a smectic E (SmE) phase characterized by an orthorhombic arrangement of molecules within the smectic layers, the order of 7BT molecules is imposed by a strong surface potential in nanopores.…”