Tuneable helices of plasmonic nanoparticles using liquid crystal templates: molecular dynamics investigation of an unusual odd–even effect in liquid crystalline dimers

Mateusz Pawlak; Maciej Bagiński; Pablo Llombart; Dominik Beutel; Guillermo González-Rubio; Ewa Górecka; Carsten Rockstuhl; Józef Mieczkowski; Damian Pociecha; Wiktor Lewandowski

doi:10.1039/D2CC00560C

Tuneable helices of plasmonic nanoparticles using liquid crystal templates: molecular dynamics investigation of an unusual odd–even effect in liquid crystalline dimers†

Mateusz Pawlak,

^a Maciej Bagiński,^a Pablo Llombart,

^b Dominik Beutel,^c Guillermo González-Rubio,

^d Ewa Górecka,

^e Carsten Rockstuhl,

^cf Józef Mieczkowski,^a Damian Pociecha

^e and Wiktor Lewandowski

*^a

Author affiliations

* Corresponding authors

^a Faculty of Chemistry, University of Warsaw, Ludwika Pasteura 1, 02-093 Warsaw, Poland
E-mail: wlewandowski@chem.uw.edu.pl

^b Departamento de Física Teórica de la Materia Condensada, Instituto Nicolás Cabrera, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, Madrid, Spain

^c Institute of Theoretical Solid State Physics, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, 76131 Karlsruhe, Germany

^d Physical Chemistry Department of Chemistry, University of Konstanz, Universitätsstraße 10, Box 714, 78457 Konstanz, Germany

^e Faculty of Chemistry, University of Warsaw, Zwirki i Wigury 101, Warsaw 02-089, Poland

^f Institute of Nanotechnology, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, 76021 Karlsruhe, Germany

Abstract

Liquid crystalline (LC) dimers formed helical nanofilaments depending on the parity of the alkyl linker, revealing an unusual odd–even effect. Molecular dynamics simulations were used to investigate the observed tendency. Elongation of the linker translates to an increase of the pitch of the helices, which allows achieving tuneable helical assemblies of Au nanoparticles doped to the LC matrix. The impact of the tuneable pitch of helices on the chiral optical properties of composites was investigated with full-wave simulations based on the T-matrix method.

This article is part of the themed collection: Chemical Communications HOT Articles 2022

Chemical Communications

Tuneable helices of plasmonic nanoparticles using liquid crystal templates: molecular dynamics investigation of an unusual odd–even effect in liquid crystalline dimers†

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Tuneable helices of plasmonic nanoparticles using liquid crystal templates: molecular dynamics investigation of an unusual odd–even effect in liquid crystalline dimers

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