30 research outputs found
Surface Induced Ordering on Model Liquid Crystalline Dendrimers
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.Comment: 23 pages, 11 figure