Issue 7, 2021

Coupling the chemical reactivity of bimetallic surfaces to the orientations of liquid crystals

Abstract

The development of responsive soft materials with tailored functional properties based on the chemical reactivity of atomically precise inorganic interfaces has not been widely explored. In this communication, guided by first-principles calculations, we design bimetallic surfaces comprised of atomically thin Pd layers deposited onto Au that anchor nematic liquid crystalline phases of 4′-n-pentyl-4-biphenylcarbonitrile (5CB) and demonstrate that the chemical reactivity of these bimetallic surfaces towards Cl2 gas can be tuned by specification of the composition of the surface alloy. Specifically, we use underpotential deposition to prepare submonolayer to multilayers of Pd on Au and employ X-ray photoelectron and infrared spectroscopy to validate computational predictions that binding of 5CB depends strongly on the Pd coverage, with ∼0.1 monolayer (ML) of Pd sufficient to cause the liquid crystal (LC) to adopt a perpendicular binding mode. Computed heats of dissociative adsorption of Cl2 on PdAu alloy surfaces predict displacement of 5CB from these surfaces, a result that is also confirmed by experiments revealing that 1 ppm Cl2 triggers orientational transitions of 5CB. By decreasing the coverage of Pd on Au from 1.8 ± 0.2 ML to 0.09 ± 0.02 ML, the dynamic response of 5CB to 1 ppm Cl2 is accelerated 3X. Overall, these results demonstrate the promise of hybrid designs of responsive materials based on atomically precise interfaces formed between hard bimetallic surfaces and soft matter.

Graphical abstract: Coupling the chemical reactivity of bimetallic surfaces to the orientations of liquid crystals

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Communication
Submitted
08 Jan 2021
Accepted
14 May 2021
First published
14 May 2021

Mater. Horiz., 2021,8, 2050-2056

Author version available

Coupling the chemical reactivity of bimetallic surfaces to the orientations of liquid crystals

T. Szilvási, H. Yu, J. I. Gold, N. Bao, T. J. Wolter, R. J. Twieg, N. L. Abbott and M. Mavrikakis, Mater. Horiz., 2021, 8, 2050 DOI: 10.1039/D1MH00035G

To request permission to reproduce material from this article, please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

If you are an author contributing to an RSC publication, you do not need to request permission provided correct acknowledgement is given.

If you are the author of this article, you do not need to request permission to reproduce figures and diagrams provided correct acknowledgement is given. If you want to reproduce the whole article in a third-party publication (excluding your thesis/dissertation for which permission is not required) please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

Read more about how to correctly acknowledge RSC content.

Social activity

Spotlight

Advertisements