Effect of the chemical properties of MOF pores on the thermo-responsivity of birefringence in liquid crystal/MOF composites

Abstract

Molecules included in nano-pores show significantly different collective order from those in the bulk. In this study, we focused on metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) of highly mesoporous crystals with high regularity and designability as a flask of liquid crystal (LC). A typical thermotropic LC, 4-cyano-4'-pentylbiphenyl (5CB) was included in the mesopores of MOFs with various chemical properties to obtain 5CB/MOF composites. The 5CB/MOF composites showed uniform birefringence in a crystal and it changed with temperature. Thermo-responsivities of birefringence were different depending on the chemical properties of the nano-pores of MOFs.