Novel microstructures from confined reactive mesogens

Novel supramolecular self-organized microstructures with high degrees of ca ptured mesogenic order and well-defined non-planar symmetry are presented. The molecular self-assembly of reactive mesogens is profoundly modified whe n constrained to non-planar templates with either spherical or cylindrical symmetry. Multi-dimensional, ordered configurations are created and indefin itely captured by photopolymerization forming solid polymer microspheres or microfibrils on the submicrometer or micrometer scale. Sophisticated micro structures and details on their structural, electrical, optical, and dynami c properties are presented, as well as the ways in which these self-organiz ed structures can be manipulated and modified by imposed external constrain ts (e.g. interfaces, finite size effects, external fields, and constraining geometry). Scanning electron microscopy and optical microscopy studies wil l be presented.