Dynamical homeotropic and planar alignments of chromonic liquid crystals

Abstract

We report on our latest studies on alignment of chromonic liquid crystals, a special class of molecules which recently attracted the attention of researchers. In particular, we show a detailed study of planar anchoring of disodium cromoglycate (DSCG) and, for the first time in the literature, a stable homeotropic alignment, achieved using a surface property of the alignment layer, i.e. the hydrophobicity. Excellent candidates from this point of view are pure polybutadiene (PB) and polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS). In fact, for the former the homeotropic anchoring stabilizes after one day, while for the latter stabilization occurs soon after cooling from the isotropic phase. After a long time both types of alignments (planar and homeotropic) evolve into thermodynamically stable configurations, i.e. ribbon structures. An explanation of the behaviour is given.