Figure 7: Guest ordering into the smectic phase in an HNF network.
From: Diastereomeric liquid crystal domains at the mesoscale
(a) FFTEM image of neat NOBOW HNFs, in which the typical HNF diameter is ∼30 nm and layer edges are clearly visible. (b) FFTEM image of c=50% 7O.5*/NOBOW mixture at T=45 °C (where 7O.5* is in the smectic phase), showing a dense array of smooth HNFs with no visible layer edges. (c,e) HNFs are much more dilute in a c=95% 7O.5*/NOBOW mixture, enabling visualization of smectic growth around single HNFs, conformally on the surface of the HNFs in the case of 7O.5*. (c–f) Continuous sheath around the HNFs, hiding the layer edges but not the underlying helical structure. The scale bars in (a–c,e) are 100 nm. (g–i) Submicron scale speckles at the N*–Sm* transition of 7O.5* in a c=50% 7O.5*/NOBOW mixture reveal N* and Sm* subdomains coexisting over the same narrow range of T everywhere in the spherulite. This suggests a statistical distribution of local transition temperatures related to statistical fluctuations in the network.
