Structural Transitions of Discotic Ionic Liquid Crystals in Nanoporous Solids

We propose to perform temperature-dependent WAXS/SAXS experiments on the self-assembly behaviour of discotic ionic liquid crystals confined in cylindrical channels of anodic alumina oxide (AAO) and silicon membranes. Motivated by optical birefringence measurements we expect distinct textures encompassing growth of columns parallel and perpendicular to the long nano channel axis, respectively. The experiments will provide detailed insights on the textural behaviour and its intimate relation to the resulting opto-electronic functionialization of the nanoporous media. These studies are not only of fundamental importance with regard to soft matter behavior in nanoconfinement. The resulting soft-hard hybrids are also promising systems for organic electronic and scalable photonic materials with adjustable optical birefringence.