Complex Smectic Phases in Polymer Grafted Shape-Uniform Cellulose Nano-Crystals

The effect of short chain grafting on the liquid crystalline (LC) ordering of nano-crystals is investigated using molecular dynamics simulations of a coarse-grained grafted nano-rod model. Monodisperse nano-rods, with aspect ratios typical of cellulose nano-crystals (CNCs) are grafted randomly with oligomers at different grafting densities. LC ordering depends non-trivially on grafting density as the effective nano-rod shape and softness is modified. Ungrafted rods exhibit Nematic and tilted Smectic-C phases. At 25% grafting, the addition of a few side chains entirely suppresses Smectic order and instead a persistent Nematic phase is favoured. Intermediary grafting, around 50%, results in a Nematic and the reappearance of tilted Smectic-F phases. Heavier grafting facilitates direct transitions to either Smectic-I with extreme tilt (75%) or an un-tilted Smectic-B (100%). Such behaviour falls outside of current hard or soft-rod descriptions of phase-transitions in rod-like LC systems and points to undiscovered LC behaviour in both shape-purified grafted/un-grafted CNCs.