Abstract
An optical polarimetry study of the orientational order of a discotic liquid crystal (DLC), 2,3,6,7,10,11-hexakis(hexyloxy)triphenylene (HAT6), confined into parallel-aligned cylindrical nanochannels of mesoporous alumina, silica, and silicon membranes as a function of temperature and channel radius (3.4–21.0nm) is presented. In contrast to the bulk state, the birefringence resulting from the confined discotic liquid crystal, exhibits a continuous temperature evolution and is positive indicating a dominating face-on (homeotropic) type molecular ordering with respect to the channel walls. Pronounced hysteresis effects observed in the experiment are traced to different nucleation sites of the low-temperature phase upon cooling and the high-temperature phase upon heating. Deviations from the Gibbs–Thomson scaling of the phase transition temperature for channel diameters below 10nm are traced to splay distortions of the confined liquid crystal.
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