Electronic interactions of typical liquid crystal molecules with typical contacted species generated from the surface of different materials

This research tries to explicate the interaction of a typical contacted metal atom or ion with a typical liquid crystal phase, when the liquid crystal is in contact with some surface material. Since high polarizable liquid crystal molecules such as cyano-biphenyls contain considerable π-electrons in the aromatic (biphenyl) core, -C ≡ N groups and lone pairs on different atoms such as halogens, they can attract neutral or ionic metal particles from the substrate or the coated surface. It has been shown by ab-initio calculations that a typical liquid crystal molecule can make strong back bonding or strong electrostatic bonding to transition metals such as Ni or to metal ions such as Na+, respectively. The interaction of transition metals with aliphatic triple (or double) bonds in the liquid crystal via back bonding causes the deviation of molecular linearity, which may alter the properties of the liquid crystal. The results show that the liquid crystal is also able to form specific interaction such as hydrogen bonding with a hydrophilic polymer such as polyvinyl alcohol (PVA). The dipole moment, the moment of inertia and the polarizability will usually increase altering the alignment properties of the liquid crystal.