Liquid crystals articles within Nature Communications

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  • Article
    | Open Access

    Assembly of block copolymers can be controlled to give varying morphologies and functionalities, but there are still aspects of the process that are not well understood. Here, the authors report convoluted self-assembly behaviours of block copolymers with discotic liquid crystalline moieties.

    • Huanzhi Yang
    • , Yunjun Luo
    •  & Xiaoyu Li

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The role of polymers in stabilizing liquid crystal (LC)-water interfaces is well studied but how the LC affects stabilizers is not fully explored yet. Here, Ma et al. show that amphiphilic polymers change their behavior when the LC is heated towards its transition to the isotropic state, and propose that this is due to an entropic repulsion active at low temperatures where the orientationally ordered LC restricts the mobility of the flexible polymer chains.

    • Xu Ma
    • , Yucen Han
    •  & Jan P. F. Lagerwall

  • Article
    | Open Access

    For an active particle to be able to swim in a low-Reynolds number flow, breaking of time-reversal symmetry and centrosymmetry is required. Typically, this is achieved through asymmetric characteristics of the swimmer. Now, swimming of centrosymmetric pulsating bubbles in an anisotropic fluid is reported.

    • Sung-Jo Kim
    • , Žiga Kos
    •  & Joonwoo Jeong

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The formation of artificial light-harvesting systems with high donor/acceptor ratios for efficient energy transfer remains challenging. Here, the authors describe a polymeric supramolecular column-based light-harvesting system by modular columnar assembly of donor/acceptor chromophores, enabling superior light-harvesting efficiency and dynamic full-color tunable emission.

    • Bin Mu
    • , Xiangnan Hao
    •  & Wei Tian

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Under strong surface or geometric constraints, achiral nematic liquid crystals can form chiral structures. Using pressure driven flow, Zhang et al. show a pathway to mirror symmetry breaking that does not require such constraints and that occurs in nematic lyotropic chromonic liquid crystals.

    • Qing Zhang
    • , Weiqiang Wang
    •  & Irmgard Bischofberger

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Here the authors experimentally realize the electrical tuning of branched flow of light in nematic liquid crystals. The statistical properties and the polarization effect of the branched flow of light in the film are systematically studied adding fundamental insights on branched flow of light.

    • Shan-shan Chang
    • , Ke-Hui Wu
    •  & Jin-hui Chen

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Complex computerized geometries can be obtained by additive manufacturing. However, the printing of purely three-dimensional polymer shapes possesses inherent poor mechanical stability. Here, the authors overcome this drawback by the light-driven orientation of liquid crystals to guide the alignment of acrylate prepolymers along the direction parallel to UV light vibrations.

    • Xiaolu Sun
    • , Shaoyun Chen
    •  & Dongxian Zhuo

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Circularly polarized luminescence materials having simultaneously high dissymmetry factor and high luminescent quantum yield are desirable to improve applicability. Here, the authors report a soft photonic crystal film with chiral nanopores fulfilling these requirements when loaded with luminescent dyes.

    • Yonghong Shi
    • , Jianlei Han
    •  & Pengfei Duan

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The formation of soliton macromolecules or metamaterial analogues of polymers with inter-soliton binding resembling strong covalent-like chemical bonds has not been considered so far. Zhao et al. experimentally create and theoretically, model soliton macromolecules, called “polyskyrmionomers”, introducing polymer-mimicking designs of topological chiral meta matter that promise technological utility in data storage and electro-optics.

    • Hanqing Zhao
    • , Boris A. Malomed
    •  & Ivan I. Smalyukh

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Isotropization temperature determines the temperature at which Liquid Crystals Elastomer (LCE) material actuates. Here, the authors give a general strategy based on dynamic covalent bonds for tuning the isotropization temperature for LCEs.

    • Yanjin Yao
    • , Enjian He
    •  & Yan Ji

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Phototunable full-color circularly polarized luminescence (CPL) features large storage density which is important for the field of information encryption and decryption. Here, the authors present a device-friendly solid film with color-tunability by employing Förster resonance energy transfer among a chiral donor and achiral molecular switches in a liquid crystal photonic capsules.

    • Siyang Lin
    • , Yuqi Tang
    •  & Quan Li

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Ferroelectric Nematic Liquid Crystals (FNLCs) have potential in applications due to their unique combination of fluidity, spontaneous polarization, large dielectric permittivity, and second-order non-linear optical properties. Sebastián et al. show the patterning of electric polarization in FNLCs by photoalignment which exploit flexoelectric coupling between polarization and splay director deformations.

    • Nerea Sebastián
    • , Matija Lovšin
    •  & Alenka Mertelj

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Achieving a form of coupling between molecular content, chemical reactions, and chassis in synthetic compartments represents a key step to the assembly of evolvable protocells but remains challenging. Here, the authors design coacervate droplets that promote non-enzymatic oligonucleotide polymerization and that restructure as a result of the reaction dynamics.

    • Tommaso P. Fraccia
    •  & Nicolas Martin

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The bottom interface between perovskite and electron-transporting layer is critical for realizing efficient flexible perovskite solar cells. Here, the authors intercalate liquid crystal elastomer interlayer for aligned mesogenic assembly and achieve maximum efficiency of 23.26% with T80 over 1570 h.

    • Zengqi Huang
    • , Lin Li
    •  & Yanlin Song

  • Article
    | Open Access

    As lamellar materials, smectics exhibit both liquid and solid characteristics, making them difficult to model at the mesoscale. Paget et al. propose a complex tensor order parameter that reflects the smectic symmetries, capable of describing complex defects including dislocations and disclinations.

    • Jack Paget
    • , Marco G. Mazza
    •  & Tyler N. Shendruk

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Development of Soft shape-memory materials is often limited to the synthesis of two-dimensional specimens and rely on bending mechanisms and scaffolding topology to perform three-dimensional morphing. Here, the authors demonstrate a shape-memory composite material made from main-chain liquid crystal elastomer microparticles dispersed in a silicone polymer matrix which enables molding into full-volume objects of any shape or size.

    • Matej Bobnar
    • , Nikita Derets
    •  & Andraž Rešetič

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Defect lines shaped as conic sections are common in smectic liquid crystals, where they manifest equidistance of molecular layers curled in space. Here authors present hyperbolas and parabolas as domain walls in ferroelectric nematics, which are shaped so to avoid being electrically charged.

    • Priyanka Kumari
    • , Bijaya Basnet
    •  & Oleg D. Lavrentovich

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Though magnetic and electric states are closely related, many magnetic states cannot find their electric counterparts. Here, the authors report electric variants of merons in thin films of the emerging liquid-matter state, i.e., ferroelectric nematic.

    • Jidan Yang
    • , Yu Zou
    •  & Satoshi Aya

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Different shapes of molecules or particles can exhibit various liquid crystal phases. The authors report on an experimental discovery of a so called splay-bend nematic liquid crystal phase in a colloidal system of bent silica rods.

    • Ramakrishna Kotni
    • , Albert Grau-Carbonell
    •  & Alfons van Blaaderen

  • Article
    | Open Access

    It has been known that spontaneous defect formation and annihilation can be triggered by turbulent flows in active nematic liquid crystals. Here, Mur et al. show a complementary mechanism induced by the flow of foreign organic molecules into the liquid crystal following the concentration gradient.

    • Maruša Mur
    • , Žiga Kos
    •  & Igor Muševič

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The boundary of conventional liquid crystals is known to anchor the orientational field of the passive materials under equilibrium conditions. Here, the authors show an active nematic to develop active boundary layers that topologically polarize the confining walls regardless of the wall curvature.

    • Jerôme Hardoüin
    • , Claire Doré
    •  & Francesc Sagués

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Elastic anisotropy of liquid crystals elastomers is typically measured at low frequencies for the applications such as soft robotics, actuators, and origami. Here the authors study the elastic anisotropy of LCE using Brillouin light spectroscopy at gigahertz frequencies such as radio frequencies or 5 G cellular networks.

    • Yu Cang
    • , Jiaqi Liu
    •  & George Fytas

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Several biomaterials have been promised as suitable candidates for photonic materials and pigments, but their fabrication processes have been limited to the small to medium-scale production of films. Here, the authors demonstrate a substrate-free process to fabricate structurally coloured microparticles via the confined self-assembly of a cholesteric cellulose nanocrystal (CNC) suspension within emulsified microdroplets.

    • Richard M. Parker
    • , Tianheng H. Zhao
    •  & Silvia Vignolini

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Hopf solitons are three-dimensional particle-like field distortions with nontrivial topology. Tai et al. show stable Hopf solitons in a liquid crystal material in the absence of an electric field or geometric confinement, their transformation and hopping-like dynamics in response to electric pulses.

    • Jung-Shen B. Tai
    • , Jin-Sheng Wu
    •  & Ivan I. Smalyukh

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Frequency responsiveness within a broad dynamic range in adaptive systems while also reducing high-frequency induced heating remains a challenge for advanced photonics. Here, authors report a frequency-actuated heliconical soft architecture with reversible modulation of the photonic bandgap in a wide spectral range.

    • Binghui Liu
    • , Cong-Long Yuan
    •  & Quan Li

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Chirality transfer across length-scales is an intriguing phenomenon but connecting the properties of individual building blocks to the emergent features of their resulting large-scale structure remains challenging. Here, the authors investigate the origins of mesophase chirality in cellulose nanocrystal suspensions, whose self-assembly into chiral photonic films has attracted significant interest.

    • Thomas G. Parton
    • , Richard M. Parker
    •  & Silvia Vignolini

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Liquid crystals (LC) are promising materials for the fabrication of reconfigurable arrays of 2D nanomaterials but it remains difficult to achieve stable dispersions of nanomaterials. Here, the authors report on good dispersions of pristine CdSe nanoplatelets (NPLs) in LCs, and reversible, rapid control of their alignment and associated anisotropic photoluminescence using a magnetic field.

    • Dahin Kim
    • , Dennis Ndaya
    •  & Chinedum O. Osuji

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Randomness is perceived in two different extremes, in macroscopic homogeneity and local heterogeneity, but apparently far away from order. Here, the authors show that a periodic order can spontaneously arise from an ensemble of binary random copolymer sequences to induce recurrent folding of a self-assembled bilayer structure in water.

    • Minjoong Shin
    • , Hayeon Kim
    •  & Myungeun Seo

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Light stimuli are widely used to control material properties, yet it remains challenging to reversibly photocontrol the dielectric permittivity. Nishikawa et al. achieve this goal in an anisotropic fluid via its liquid crystal phase transition induced by isomerization of an azobenzene-tethered phototrigger.

    • Hiroya Nishikawa
    • , Koki Sano
    •  & Fumito Araoka

  • Article
    | Open Access

    A 3D‐ordered liquid crystal phase of regular right and left helically twisted columns self‐assembles from straight‐ and bent‐rod molecules. Here calculations indicate that, among four alternative models, the observed complex Fddd structure provides the lowest packing energy for twisted ribbons.

    • Ya-xin Li
    • , Hong-fei Gao
    •  & Goran Ungar

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Soft-elasticity in monodomain liquid crystal elastomers (LCEs) is promising for impact-absorbing applications but due to the lack of synthetic procedures which give monodomain devices of sufficient size, impact studies on LCEs have not been performed. Here the authors use direct-ink writing to fabricate bulk monodomain LCE devices and study their compressive soft-elasticity.

    • D. Mistry
    • , N. A. Traugutt
    •  & C. M. Yakacki

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Multistep nucleation phenomena are of considerable fundamental interest. Here the authors combine molecular dynamics, machine learning and molecular cluster analysis to investigate the multistep nucleation of smectic clusters from a nematic fluid that cannot be accounted for by the classical nucleation theory.

    • Kazuaki Z. Takahashi
    • , Takeshi Aoyagi
    •  & Jun-ichi Fukuda

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Nematic liquid crystals with polar order bear great potential for many applications but their rational design is difficult. Mandle et al. outline a set of design principles for this new phase of matter, guided by experiments and simulation, showing polar order to be driven by steric interactions.

    • Richard J. Mandle
    • , Nerea Sebastián
    •  & Alenka Mertelj

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Permanently retaining liquid crystalline blue phases in a solid matrix warrants many prospective applications in photonics. Schlafmann and White are able to make a blue phase rubber that retains a crystalline structure upon deformation and responds with angle-dependent color changes.

    • Kyle R. Schlafmann
    •  & Timothy J. White

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Wearable polymer ultraviolet (UV) detectors seriously suffer from slow response time. Here, the authors propose a UV illuminance-mechanical stress-electric signal conversion based on well-defined ionic liquid-containing liquid crystalline polymer and highly elastic polyurethane composite fabrics, to achieve a robust UV monitoring and shielding device with a fast response time of 5 s.

    • Xiaoxiong Zheng
    • , Yining Jia
    •  & Aihua Chen

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Ferroelectric liquid crystals (FLCs) have faster optical response times than nematic crystals, but they are also less robust to external shock. Here the authors develop an FLC geometry that reduces the sensitivity to external disruption through self-healing, making them more stable for applications.

    • Peter J. M. Wyatt
    • , James Bailey
    •  & J. Cliff Jones

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Shape morphing materials are usually difficult to operate in a continuous fashion. Nie et al. fabricate stripes with liquid crystalline elastomers that can be given a Möbius-like morphology with seamless material composition, and perpetually driven under photothermally induced actuation.

    • Zhen-Zhou Nie
    • , Bo Zuo
    •  & Hong Yang

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The so-called twist-bend and splay-bend nematic liquid crystal phases are important concepts for studying bent-core mesogens. Chiappini et al. use a theory/simulation approach to suggest that the transition proceed via a twist-splay-bend phase which may be obscured by density modulations.

    • Massimiliano Chiappini
    •  & Marjolein Dijkstra

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Blue phases are spatially ordered yet fragile liquid crystalline structures, bearing applications in optoelectronics and photonics. Hu et al. show that self-assembly within a mixture of different mesogens may significantly broaden the temperature range over which they are stable.

    • Wei Hu
    • , Ling Wang
    •  & Huai Yang

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Nematic liquid crystal elastomers (N-LCE) have a slow relaxation, which can prevent their shape recovery. Here, the authors examine mechanical hysteresis in a series of main-chain N-LCE to understand how the inherent nematic order retards and arrests the equilibration.

    • Takuya Ohzono
    • , Kaoru Katoh
    •  & Eugene M. Terentjev

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