Liquid crystalline textures and polymer morphologies resulting from electropolymerisation in liquid crystal phases

Abstract

A small fraction of an acrylate liquid crystalline monomer (≤5%) is mixed into nematic and smectic liquid crystalline phases, and polymerised through the application of a voltage (electropolymerisation). Polarising optical microscopy reveals that the textures during polymerisation are templated through stabilisation via the forming polymer. During polymerisation in the nematic phase, the director can be observed to gradually reorient into the field-on state. Scanning electron microscopy reveals rope-like and corrugated structures of a distinctive periodicity (500–750 nm). Quite different polymer structures are formed by electropolymerisation in the smectic phase, such as micron-scale worm-like objects that agglomerate reversibly as the temperature changes.