Chirality under confinement - multidimensional constraints in liquid crystalline materials

The first part of the thesis is devoted to studies of the self-assembled monolayers of discotic liquid crystals by the STM measurements at the liquid/solid interface. For the case of a model H5T molecule the self-assembled monolayers have evidenced both: point and organizational types of chirality, despite of the fact that neither the molecule nor the substrate was chiral. For another molecular system, C-12 - a triphenylene peripherally substituted with azobenzene moieties, self-assemblies bearing the chiral nature were also evidenced. Chirality was induced by formation of six dimers of azobenzene subunits coming from the neighboring molecules, which formed “rosettes” of clockwise or counter-clockwise rotation. For the H5T, the chirality was mediated by classical van der Waals interactions between molecules and between molecules and substrate. In the case of C-12 it was shown that the self-assembly originates from the substrate-mediated hydrogen bonding between the azobenzene moieties of neighboring molecules. The second part of the thesis presents studies of the influence of the 3D confinement on the chirality of the photoactive cholesteric liquid crystal (CLC) droplets. Due to the photo-responsive character of a chiral dopant we were able to modify the cholesteric pitch of the CLC mixture and thus to map the expression of chirality for a varying geometrical confinement parameter: radius-to-pitch. We evidenced a successful control of the droplets structure by UV irradiation and we studied the induced structural changes. In particular, the 3D confinement of a photo-responsive CLC mixture was shown to positively support the helix inversion within the cholesteric droplets.