Sequential Infiltration Synthesis of Nematic Liquid Crystal Templated Reactive Mesogen Network

Sequential infiltration synthesis (SIS) is a promising technique for fabricating hybrid and inorganic structural thin films by leveraging soft material templates with versatile mesoscale structures. Liquid crystals (LCs), with their fast self-assembly kinetics, low energy input, wide range of morphologies from 1D to 3D, and length scales from nanometers to micrometers, create great potential as soft templates to enrich the accessibility of SIS structures. Here, based on the UV cured LC films prepared from reactive mesogen, the reaction mechanism between polar groups in mesogen and aluminum precursors is revealed. The primary SIS conditions for growing aluminum oxide in LC films are systematically studied. The nucleation and growth of inorganic materials in LC film were monitored by characterizing film thickness, elemental distribution, infiltration depth and surface morphology under various SIS conditions. Density functional theory-based calculations further demonstrate that the polar functional groups in LC films exhibit unique reactivity due to the functional group polarity and steric effects. Our findings provide deep insights into the mechanism of LC-templated SIS reactions and highlight their potential to take LCs beyond conventional optical observations and establish them as a paradigm for the synthesis of hybrid or inorganic materials with diverse and complex structures.