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Liquid crystals are substances that flow like a liquid but maintain some of the ordered structure of crystals. Liquid-crystal molecules tend to be elongated and to orient in specific directions.
A new type of luminescent nanocomposite based on 0D/2D vertical heterojunction is prepared, enabling the fabrication of a multifunctional optical device for blue light emission, light modulation and UV detection.
The nematic sol-gel transition microstructure of swelling clays is not well understood. Here, the microstructure of a smectite clay suspension is probed with ultra-small angle neutron/X-ray scattering, uncovering the structural order of these nematic gels.
Tuning actuation temperatures of liquid crystalline elastomers can help control actuation behaviour, but normally cannot be altered following the synthesis of the material. Here, the authors report the development of an elastomer with varying actuation temperature depending on the conditions.
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.
The liquid-crystal-like order of cells in epithelial tissues aids rearrangements, but there is disagreement over the dominant liquid crystal phase. Now, a unified approach reveals that two distinct symmetries dominate at different scales.
The guiding of magnetic fields by soft ferromagnetic solids is well known and exploited in magnetic shielding applications. Now, ferroelectric nematic liquids are shown to analogously guide electric fields.
Liquid crystal defect structures with topology similar to a Möbius strip can rotate, translate and transform into one another under an applied electric field.
A liquid crystal doped with a diarylethene enantiomer can be switched by light into stable reflection states of different colour, creating new opportunities for lasing and labelling.
