Organic Thin Films

Abstract

Recent investigations of the anchoring of liquid crystals on self-assembled monolayers (SAMs) formed from alkanethiols on gold are discussed. The structures of alkanethiols used to form SAMs (e.g., odd and even alkanethiols or long and short alkanethiols), the manner of deposition of films of gold used to support SAMs (uniform or oblique deposition), as well as the procedures used to deposit alkanethiols (spontaneous adsorption or microcontact printing) can all be exploited to control the orientations of liquid crystals on these surfaces.Recent investigations of the anchoring of liquid crystals on self-assembled monolayers (SAMs) formed from alkanethiols on gold are discussed. The structures of alkanethiols used to form SAMs (e.g., odd and even alkanethiols or long and short alkanethiols), the manner of deposition of films of gold used to support SAMs (uniform or oblique deposition), as well as the procedures used to deposit alkanethiols (spontaneous adsorption or microcontact printing) can all be exploited to control the orientations of liquid crystals on these surfaces.