COLLECTIVE PRECESSION OF CHIRAL LIQUID CRYSTALS UNDER TRANSMEMBRANE MASS FLOW

Tilted monolayers composed of chiral liquid crystals (LCs) are known to exhibit the molecular collective precession under the transmembrane water flow. The phenomenon has been explained from the macroscopic point of view as a two-dimensional-type “Lehmann effect,” but the microscopic mechanism has not been understood at all. In order to reveal the molecular motion, which could be the origin of the macroscopic precession, we calculated the rotational torque of an isolated chiral molecule under the mass flow of several materials. The result shows that single chiral molecule can obtain a certain torque under the mass flow along the molecular long axis, the magnitude of which depends on the chemical structure of flow materials.