Complex Smectic Phases in Polymer Grafted Shape-Uniform Cellulose Nano-Crystals
Fuente:
arXiv
Salvato in:
| Autori principali: | , |
|---|---|
| Natura: | Preprint |
| Pubblicazione: |
2024
|
| Soggetti: | |
| Accesso online: | |
| Tags: |
Aggiungi Tag
Nessun Tag, puoi essere il primo ad aggiungerne!!
|
| _version_ | 1866910984558346240 |
|---|---|
| author | Fall, William S. Wensink, Henricus H. |
| author_facet | Fall, William S. Wensink, Henricus H. |
| contents | The effect of short chain grafting on the liquid crystalline (LC) ordering of nano-crystals is investigated using molecular dynamics simulations of a coarse-grained grafted nano-rod model. Monodisperse nano-rods, with aspect ratios typical of cellulose nano-crystals (CNCs) are grafted randomly with oligomers at different grafting densities. LC ordering depends non-trivially on grafting density as the effective nano-rod shape and softness is modified. Ungrafted rods exhibit Nematic and tilted Smectic-C phases. At 25\% grafting, the addition of a few side chains entirely suppresses Smectic order and instead a persistent Nematic phase is favoured. Intermediary grafting, around 50\%, results in a Nematic and the reappearance of tilted Smectic-F phases. Heavier grafting facilitates direct transitions to either Smectic-I with extreme tilt (75\%) or an un-tilted Smectic-B (100\%). Such behaviour falls outside of current hard or soft-rod descriptions of phase-transitions in rod-like LC systems and points to undiscovered LC behaviour in both shape-purified grafted/un-grafted CNCs. |
| format | Preprint |
| id |
arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2407_05401 |
| institution | arXiv |
| publishDate | 2024 |
| record_format | arxiv |
| spellingShingle | Complex Smectic Phases in Polymer Grafted Shape-Uniform Cellulose Nano-Crystals Fall, William S. Wensink, Henricus H. Soft Condensed Matter Materials Science The effect of short chain grafting on the liquid crystalline (LC) ordering of nano-crystals is investigated using molecular dynamics simulations of a coarse-grained grafted nano-rod model. Monodisperse nano-rods, with aspect ratios typical of cellulose nano-crystals (CNCs) are grafted randomly with oligomers at different grafting densities. LC ordering depends non-trivially on grafting density as the effective nano-rod shape and softness is modified. Ungrafted rods exhibit Nematic and tilted Smectic-C phases. At 25\% grafting, the addition of a few side chains entirely suppresses Smectic order and instead a persistent Nematic phase is favoured. Intermediary grafting, around 50\%, results in a Nematic and the reappearance of tilted Smectic-F phases. Heavier grafting facilitates direct transitions to either Smectic-I with extreme tilt (75\%) or an un-tilted Smectic-B (100\%). Such behaviour falls outside of current hard or soft-rod descriptions of phase-transitions in rod-like LC systems and points to undiscovered LC behaviour in both shape-purified grafted/un-grafted CNCs. |
| title | Complex Smectic Phases in Polymer Grafted Shape-Uniform Cellulose Nano-Crystals |
| topic | Soft Condensed Matter Materials Science |
| url | https://arxiv.org/abs/2407.05401 |