A computer simulation study of the anchoring transitions driven by rod–coil amphiphiles at aqueous–liquid crystal interfaces

Abstract

Dissipative particle dynamics simulations have been conducted to study the anchoring transitions of nematic liquid crystals in the presence of a rod–coil amphiphilic monolayer at the aqueous–liquid crystal interface. Instead of amphiphile interfacial coverage, the repulsion interaction parameter (a_MR) between the mesogens and rod blocks of the amphiphiles is used as a tunable and quantitative parameter to control the anchoring transition. Depending on a complicated interplay between the interfacial interactions and the packing effects, we have observed a novel anchoring transition sequence of planar–tilted–homeotropic–tilted–planar when continuously decreasing the value of a_MR.