Liquid crystal (5CB) adsorption on two-dimensional materials*

Liquid crystals are widely used in display technologies. Their collective behavior and use ultimately hinges on single molecules interacting with a supporting surface. Since the isolation of graphene in 2004, the potential for combining two-dimensional nanosheets with liquid crystals has become an area of scientific interest. However, little attention has focused on the local interfacial interactions between the mesogen and two-dimensional materials. In this presentation, we discuss the local mesogenic interactions between the well-known nematic liquid crystal 5CB, and a series of monolayer crystals such as graphene, molybdenum disulfide, phosphorene, and h-BN. In particular, we present electronic ground state properties obtained using density functional theory with nonlocal van der Waals corrections that reveal subtle orientational, energetic, and electronic properties for the characterization of local mesogen-substrate interactions, whereby the anchoring of liquid crystal can be understood more generally across atomically flat surfaces.