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Updated: Aug 9, 2026

Orientational Transition in a Liquid Crystal Triggered by the Thermodynamic Growth of Interfacial Wetting Sheets
Published on: May 15, 2017
Organization of four thermotropic liquid crystals of different polarities on model liquid and solid surfaces
Mounia Badis1, M Hassan Guermouche, Jean-Pierre Bayle
1Equipe de Physico-chimie des Colloïdes, UMR 7565 CNRS/Université Henri Poincaré Nancy 1, Faculté des Sciences, BP 239, 54506 Vandoeuvre-lès-Nancy Cedex, France.
Abstract:
The thermodynamic and surface properties of four structurally related thermotropic liquid crystals (LC) were investigated to understand their organization at gas-liquid and gas-solid interfaces. In this study, LC with a benzoyloxy azobenzene mesogenic core substituted with heptyloxy and/or dioxyethylene ether groups were used. The propensity of the LC to form self-assembled multilayers was demonstrated in the films spread at the air/aqueous interface using the Langmuir technique and Brewster angle microscopy and on the solid surfaces of Chromosorb WHP and silica, using differential scanning calorimetry. On the basis of the results obtained, a molecular recognition mechanism underlying separation processes using LC as selectors in gas chromatography is proposed.
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