Large‐Area Uniaxially Oriented Sub‐5 nm Line Patterns of Hybrid Liquid Crystals Constructed by Perylene Diimide and Oligo(Dimethylsiloxane)

Abstract

AbstractConstruction of sub‐5 nm long‐range ordered structures through self‐assembly has received increasing attention. Herein, a series of ODMS‐based thermotropic liquid crystals (LCs) containing perylene diimide (PDI) were designed and synthesized. These LCs can form ordered nanostructures with periodic sizes around 5 nm including smectic J (SmJ), oblique columnar (Colob), and hexagonal columnar (Colh) phases with change in the volume fraction of ODMS, where the layer spacing of the SmJ phase is less than 5 nm. Thin films with parallel oriented nanolines with line width less than 5 nm can be obtained on PDMS‐modified silicon substrates by spin‐casting and simple thermal annealing processes. Moreover, owing to the strong π‐π interaction between PDI cores, these nanolines are long‐range ordered with uniaxial orientation in relatively large areas (1.5×1.5 μm2) with over 300 continuous microdomains without pre‐patterning. These nanostructures provide the possibility of preparing nanotemplates by oxygen plasma etching.