Nanoconfinement-induced structures in chiral liquid crystals.

We employ Monte Carlo simulations in a specialized isothermal-isobaric and in the grand canonical ensemble to study structure formation in chiral liquid crystals as a function of molecular chirality. Our model potential consists of a simple Lennard-Jones potential, where the attractive contribution has been modified to represent the orientation dependence of the interaction between a pair of chiral liquid-crystal molecules. The liquid crystal is confined between a pair of planar and atomically smooth substrates onto which molecules are anchored in a hybrid fashion. Hybrid anchoring allows for the formation of helical structures in the direction perpendicular to the substrate plane without exposing the helix to spurious strains. At low chirality, we observe a cholesteric phase, which is transformed into a blue phase at higher chirality. More specifically, by studying the unit cell and the spatial arrangement of disclination lines, this blue phase can be established as blue phase II. If the distance between the confining substrates and molecular chirality are chosen properly, we see a third structure, which may be thought of as a hybrid, exhibiting mixed features of a cholesteric and a blue phase.

On the influence of surfactants on the adsorption of polysaccharide-based polymers on cotton studied by means of fluorescence spectroscopy.

In this study, we examined the influence of surfactants on the adsorption of polymers on cotton fibers. The extent of polymer adsorption on cotton was determined directly by means of fluorescence spectroscopy using fluorescently labeled polymers. The investigation of polymer adsorption in the presence of different types of surfactants and for a large range of differently structured polymers allows us to obtain a rather general picture of this important issue. Systematic relationships between the presence of surfactant and the type of polymer can be deduced but cannot be cast in simple terms such as electrostatic interaction but instead depend on the detailed interaction between the surfactant and polymer both in solution and adsorbed on the cotton surface. A particularly complex situation arises for the case of oppositely charged surfactant and polymer because of the possibility of precipitate formation. The study of such complex systems not only is of scientific interest but also is of great commercial interest because both polymers and surfactants are parts of detergent formulations and cotton is one of the most abundantly used materials for fabrics.