Surface reconstruction of chiral liquid crystalline oligomers under the action of volatile organic compounds

Significant changes in surface morphology as well as in chiral fingerprint structure are discovered in solid chiral oligomers and their compositions with low molar mass liquid crystals affected by volatile organic compounds. The changes are manifested by inversion of chiral pattern and surface periodic structure. Surprisingly, the changes are reversible with a relaxation time of several days at room temperature. This reversebility of the effect underscores the importance of chiral structure beneath the surface and not affected by the volatile compounds in restoration of initial morphology. The importance of underlying chirality is also confirmed by the absence of this effect in replicas of chiral surface created by means of common polymers (polystyreene, polyvinylpyridine). The discovered effect is also modelled by means of computer simulations and a simple theoretical model is presented. The discovered effect can find applications in gas detectors and optical devices.