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Particles and Fields

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

Editors-in-Chief
E. Dudas, M. Elsing, F. Forti, J. Monroe, D.J. Schwarz and G. Zanderighi

We are very thankful to you and our referee for your work! Especially we are thankful to the referee. His work has been done at a high professional level!

V. Uzhinsky, Joint Institute for Nuclear Research, Dubna, Russia

ISSN: 1434-6052 (Electronic Edition)

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