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Special Topics

Liquid crystals straighten up

Grazing incidence X-ray diffraction, performed by Grelet and colleagues, reveals that thin films of discotic liquid crystals typically prefer to lie flat in columns oriented along the surface of their substrate. These materials are potentially useful for organic solar cells, but to achieve good performance from such devices, the column axis should rather be oriented vertical to the conducting substrate. However, the authors of this EPJ E paper have discovered a specific thermal process that makes it possible to change the column alignment from planar to vertical and achieve the best conditions for charge transport in photovoltaic devices.

To read the full paper ‘Morphology of open films of discotic hexagonal columnar liquid crystals as probed by grazing incidence X-ray diffraction’ click here

Managing Editors
Sandrine Karpe and Vijala Kiruvanayagam (EDP Sciences) and Sabine Lehr (Springer-Verlag)
Many thanks for the excellent work and support from you and your team at Springer / EDP sciences.

Susana Alexandra Barbosa, Centre for Information Systems and Computer Graphics, Porto, Portugal
Editor EPJ Special Topics 224/4, 2015

ISSN: 1951-6355 (Print Edition)
ISSN: 1951-6401 (Electronic Edition)

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