Impact of polarized nanotube surface on ultrathin mesogen film properties: Computer simulation study

We studied properties of monolayer films of n-cyanobiphenyl (with n=5,...,8) series of mesogens anchored on the surface of single walled boron nitride nanotube. In order to assess the impact of substrate polarization on the ordering effects we compare translational and reorientational dynamics of the films with the characteristics of analogous carbon and silicon carbide nanotube based systems. We observed significant increase of the ordering degree accompanied by increased thermal stability. This ordering is less selective than those induced by the silicon carbide nanotube, which were previously reported. The antiparallel orientation of the nearest neighboring mesogens is predominant, while the system does not exhibit any long-range spatial correlations which indicates that the size of the domains is constrained to this region. These features might be of potential importance in the design of novel optoelectronic devices.