Morphological study of a chiral polymer network in a nematic liquid crystal from a concentration gradient

Michel Mitov (1) , Alain Boudet (2) , Pierre Sopena (2) , Pierre Sixou (3)

1 CEMES-NeO - Nano-Optique et Nanomatériaux pour l'optique
2 CEMES - Centre d'élaboration de matériaux et d'études structurales
3 LPMC - Laboratoire de physique de la matière condensée

A contact preparation is made between a cholesteric photocrosslinkable material and a standard nematic liquid crystal. The concentration and the anisotropy progressively and homogeneously vary along a direction perpendicular to the diffusion front. On the basis of scanning electron microscopy investigations, comparisons are made between the modifications of the polymer network from a sample region rich in one component to the complementary region rich in the other. Such a preparation offers the opportunity to visualize the morphological transformations when a phase transition occurs and the morphologies intrinsic to textures intermediate between well-classified mesomorphic textures. Scanning electron microscopy texture observations are made in parallel with those by optical microscopy in order to make the connection with the mesomorphic textures, which therefore act as indicators during the subsequent SEM investigations.

Domaines: Matière Molle [cond-mat.soft]

Michel Mitov, Alain Boudet, Pierre Sopena, Pierre Sixou. Morphological study of a chiral polymer network in a nematic liquid crystal from a concentration gradient. Liquid Crystals, 1997, 23 (6), pp.903-910. ⟨10.1080/026782997207849⟩. ⟨hal-03588803⟩