Eur. Phys. J. Special Topics 189, 251-255 (2010)
https://doi.org/10.1140/epjst/e2010-01329-5

Regular Article

Vibrational and molecular dynamics of a nanoconfined liquid crystal

¹ BAM Federal Institute for Materials Research and Testing, Unter den Eichen 87, 12205 Berlin, Germany
² National Institute of Material Physics, 077125 Magurele, Romania
³ Technical University Munich, Physics Department, 85747 Garching, Germany
⁴ Institut Laue-Langevin, 6 rue Jules Horowitz, BP. 156, 38042 Grenoble, France
⁵ Institute for Solid Sate Research, Research Centre Jülich, 52425 Jülich, Germany

Received: 1 September 2010
Revised: 14 September 2010
Published online: 12 November 2010

Abstract

The effect of a nanometer confinement on the vibrational and molecular dynamics of a liquid crystals E7 was studied by dielectric spectroscopy (DS) and neutron scattering (NS). E7 undergoes a glass transition phenomenon besides the nematic to isotropic phase transition. As confining host a molecular sieve of the MCM-41 type is used having cylindrical pores with a radius of 1.25 nm. The results obtained by both methods are compared in detail.