4 research outputs found
Self-Assembly Behavior of Triphenylene-Based Side-Chain Discotic Liquid Crystalline Polymers
We constructed a generic coarse-grained
model of triphenylene-based
side-chain discotic liquid crystalline polymers (SDLCPs). Then dissipative
particle dynamics (DPD) simulation was employed to systematically
study how composition and structural factors of SDLCPs such as molecular
weight, main chain, spacer and aliphatic tails, and the incompatibility
between mesogenic core and its substituents influence their mesophases
and self-assembly behavior. Eight mesophases were obtained by changing
the factors mentioned above. The eight phases are hexagonal columnar–amorphous
(Col<sub>h</sub>-Am), nematic columnar–amorphous (Col<sub>ne</sub>-Am), nematic columnar–clustered (Col<sub>ne</sub>-Clu), nematic
columnar–columnar (Col<sub>ne</sub>-Col), random columns–amorphous
(Col<sub>ran</sub>-Am), random columnar–clustered (Col<sub>ran</sub>-Clu), amorphous–amorphous (Am-Am), and sphere–amorphous
(Sph-Am). The name of mesophase is denoted as “assembly of
discogens-aggregation of backbone”. By checking conformation
of molecules, the intracolumnar self-assembling patterns based on
the discrete columnar stack (DCS) were observed in Col<sub>h</sub>-Am, Col<sub>ne</sub>-Am, and Col<sub>ne</sub>-Clu, while Col<sub>ne</sub>-Col and Sph-Am adopted different packing modes. Moreover,
molecular weight effect and positive coupling of spacer were discolosed,
which matches well with experiments. Moderate or strong incompatibility
between mesogenic cores and substituents and proper peripheral aliphatic
tails are needed for SDLCPs to form ordered mesophases. The in-depth
understranding of their superstructures may offer inspiring guidance
for rational polymer design, preparation, and further exploration
in optoelectronic field