Liquid crystals articles within Nature Communications

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  • Article
    | Open Access

    Theories predict the existence of a nematic liquid crystal phase with a local twist-bend structure, but no experimental proof is available over the past 40 years. Borshch et al.identify this phase for the first time in two different materials containing dimeric molecules.

    • V. Borshch
    • , Y.-K. Kim
    •  & O. D. Lavrentovich

  • Article |

    Mimicking the behaviour of biological tissues requires finding biocompatible materials that can strengthen in response to external forces. Agrawal et al. show that polydomain nematic liquid crystal elastomers become unexpectedly stiffer when subjected to a small amplitude and repetitive compression.

    • Aditya Agrawal
    • , Alin C. Chipara
    •  & Rafael Verduzco

  • Article |

    Colloidal crystals are 3D periodic structures formed from small colloidal particles as basic building blocks and exhibit unique optical and electronic properties. Nych et al.report a laser controlled assembly of 3D colloidal crystals, which can be compressed and rotated in a collective manner.

    • A. Nych
    • , U. Ognysta
    •  & I. Muševič

  • Article |

    Liquid crystal elastomers can perform mechanical motion triggered by external stimuli, and are light weight, flexible materials that may be integrated into micromechanical systems. Here they are used to fabricate a one-piece temperature-responsive micropump viaa microfluidic double-emulsion process.

    • Eva-Kristina Fleischmann
    • , Hsin-Ling Liang
    •  & Rudolf Zentel

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The orientational order of nematic liquid crystals is a property that is controllable by external parameters such as electromagnetic fields and pressure gradients. Lavrentovich and co-workers demonstrate that thermal expansion can also induce orientational order that results in a flow of the liquid crystals.

    • Young-Ki Kim
    • , Bohdan Senyuk
    •  & Oleg D. Lavrentovich

  • Article |

    T- and X-shaped polyphilic liquid crystals can generate ordered structures with potential nanotechnology applications. Here, the inability of polyphiles to achieve optimal packing and complete nanophase separation is exploited to produce a flexible two-dimensional honeycomb with giant octagonal and square cylinders.

    • Feng Liu
    • , Robert Kieffer
    •  & Carsten Tschierske

  • Article |

    Studying the structures of dense colloidal systems of anisotropic Brownian particles provides insight into fundamental processes like protein crystallization. Zhaoet al. study the phases of two-dimensional triatic liquid crystals and find that one of them exhibits local chiral-symmetry breaking.

    • Kun Zhao
    • , Robijn Bruinsma
    •  & Thomas G. Mason

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Chiral liquid crystals of two-dimensional colloids have not been extensively investigated. Xu and Gao show that graphene oxide can form chiral liquid crystals, and demonstrate that they can be spun into macroscopic fibres, and that subsequent chemical reduction provides graphene fibres with high conductivity.

    • Zhen Xu
    •  & Chao Gao

  • Article |

    Skyrmions are particle-like topological entities in a continuous field that have a role in various condensed matter systems. Here, numerical methods are used to show that a chiral nematic liquid crystal could be used as a model system to facilitate direct structural investigation of Skyrmions.

    • Jun-ichi Fukuda
    •  & Slobodan Žumer

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