Liquid Crystals With Nano Micro Particles And Their Applications

LCs are self-organized anisotropic fluids that are thermodynamically located between the isotropic liquid and the crystalline phase, exhibiting the fluidity of liquids as well as the long-range lattice order that can only be found in crystalline solids. The addition of nanomaterials to a LC material produces a composite or colloidal dispersion and results into a revolutionary change in their applications. This book will discuss the remarkable performances of nano-particle aided liquid crystals in metamaterials, photonics, functionalized polymer fibres, sensing, and medical diagnostics.

"Recent advancement of Nanotechnology has opened up a new door in the field of liquid crystal. For many materials, the transition between the liquid and the solid phase is not a single-step process, but a range of various mesophases, which are called liquid crystals (LCs). LCs are self-organized anisotropic fluids that are thermodynamically located between the isotropic liquid and the crystalline phase, exhibiting the fluidity of liquids as well as the long-range lattice order that can only be found in crystalline solids. The addition of nanomaterials to a LC material produces a composite or colloidal dispersion and resulting into a revolutionary change in their applications"--

While liquid crystals are today widely known for their successful application in flat panel displays (LCDs), academic liquid crystal research is more and more targeting situations where these anisotropic fluids are put to completely different use, in varying contexts. A particularly strong focus is on colloidal liquid crystals, where particles, bubbles or drops are dispersed in a liquid crystal phase. The liquid crystal can act as a host phase, with the inclusions constituting foreign guests that disturb the local order in interesting ways, often resulting in large-scale positional arrangement and/or uniform alignment of the guests. But it may also be formed by solid particles themselves, if these are of nanoscale dimensions and of disc- or rod-shape, and if they are suspended in an isotropic liquid host at sufficient concentration. This book aims to cover both the modern research tracks, gathering pioneering researchers of the different subfields to give a concise overview of the basis as well as the prospects of their respective specialties. The scope spans from curiosity-driven fundamental scientific research to applied sciences. Over the course of the next decade, the former is likely to generate new tracks of the latter type, considering the exploratory and productive phase of this young research field. Contents:Introduction (G Scalia and J P F Lagerwall)Volume 1:Fundamentals:A Phenomenological Introduction to Liquid Crystals and Colloids (J P F Lagerwall)Nanoparticle Dispersions: A Colloid and Polymer Solution Perspective (P van der Schoot)Nematic Liquid Crystals Doped with Nanoparticles: Phase Behavior and Dielectric Properties (M A Osipov and M V Gorkunov)Methods for Studying Liquid Crystals and Their Inclusions:Conventional and Nonlinear Optical Microscopy of Liquid Crystal Colloids (T Lee and I I Smalyukh)X-Ray Scattering (G Ungar, Z Chen and X Zeng)Raman Spectroscopy (H F Gleeson) Manipulation of Inclusions with Optical Tweezers (M Skarabot)Atomic Force Microscopy on Liquid Crystals (C Bahr and B Schulz)Micron Scale Inclusions in Liquid Crystals:Solid Microparticles in Nematic Liquid Crystals (Igor Muševič) Inclusions in Freely Suspended Smectic Films (R Stannarius and K Harth)Liquid Crystal-Enabled Electrophoresis and Electro-Osmosis (O D Lavrentovich)Volume 2:Nanoparticles in Liquid Crystals:Nanoparticles in Discotic Liquid Crystals (S Kumar)Metallic and Semiconducting Nanoparticles in LCs (A Sharma, M Urbanski, T Moria, H-S Kitzerow and T Hegmann)Inorganic Nanotubes and Nanorods in Liquid Crystals (I Drevenšek-Olenik)Liquid Crystals from Mesogens Containing Gold Nanoparticles (W Lewandowski and E Gorecka)Carbon Nanotubes in Thermotropic Low Molar Mass Liquid Crystals (S Schymura, J Park, I Dierking and G Scalia)Carbon Nanotubes Dispersed in Liquid Crystal Elastomers (Y Yang and Y Ji)Ferromagnetic and Ferroelectric Nanoparticles in Liquid Crystals (Y Reznikov, A Glushchenko and Y Garbovskiy)Nanoparticle Guests in Lyotropic Liquid Crystals (S Dölle, J H Park, S Schymura, Hyeran Jo, G Scalia and J P F Lagerwall)Control of Nanoparticle Self-Assemblies Using Distorted Liquid Crystals (E Lacaze and D Coursault)Nanoparticles and Networks Created Within Liquid Crystals (S-W Kang and S Kundu)Liquid Crystals Formed by Nanoparticle Suspensions:Nematic Phase Formation in Suspensions of Carbon Nanotubes (C Zakri and Ph Poulin)Nematic Phase Formation in Suspensions of Graphene Oxide (N Fresneau and S Campidelli)Electro-Optical Switching of Liquid Crystals of Graphene Oxide (J Song)Liquid Crystalline Phases in Suspensions of Pigments in Non-Polar Solvent (S Klein, R Richardson and A Eremin)Cholesteric Liquid Crystal Formation in Suspensions of Cellulose Nanocrystals (C Honorato-Rios, J Bruckner, C Schütz, S Wagner, Z Tosheva, L Bergström and J P F Lagerwall)Subject Index Readership: This book would be beneficial as a reference work for researchers active in the field as well as for other researchers aiming to enter the field.

"While liquid crystals are today widely known for their successful application in flat panel displays (LCDs), academic liquid crystal research is more and more targeting situations where these anisotropic fluids are put to completely different use, in varying contexts. A particularly strong focus is on colloidal liquid crystals, where particles, bubbles or drops are dispersed in a liquid crystal phase. The liquid crystal can act as a host phase, with the inclusions constituting foreign guests that disturb the local order in interesting ways, often resulting in large-scale positional arrangement and/or uniform alignment of the guests. But it may also be formed by solid particles themselves, if these are of nanoscale dimensions and of disc- or rod-shape, and if they are suspended in an isotropic liquid host at sufficient concentration. This book aims to cover both the modern research tracks, gathering pioneering researchers of the different subfields to give a concise overview of the basis as well as the prospects of their respective specialties. The scope spans from curiosity-driven fundamental scientific research to applied sciences. Over the course of the next decade, the former is likely to generate new tracks of the latter type, considering the exploratory and productive phase of this young research field."--Publisher's website

Liquid crystals constitute a fascinating class of soft condensed matter characterized by the counterintuitive combination of fluidity and long-range order. Today liquid crystals are best known for their exceptionally successful application in flat panel displays, but they actually exhibit a plethora of unique and attractive properties that offer tremendous potential for fundamental science as well as innovative applications well beyond the realm of displays. This full breadth of the liquid crystalline state of matter is becoming increasingly recognized and numerous new and exciting lines of research are being opened up. In this chapter we look at these exciting developments, focusing primarily on the physics aspects of the new research thrusts, in which thermotropic as well as lyotropic liquid crystals often meet other types of soft matter, such as polymers and colloidal nano- or microparticle dispersions. Because the field is also of interest for researchers who may not have a liquid crystal background we begin with a concise introduction to the liquid crystalline state of matter and the key concepts of the research field. We then discuss nanostructured liquid crystals, followed by applications of nanostructured liquid crystals.

This book is a printed edition of the Special Issue "Nanomaterials in Liquid Crystals" that was published in Nanomaterials

Liquid crystals (LCs) were discovered over a century ago, but their profound impact was in the past four decades through their successful implementation into electronic devices that we are using every day. The research on liquid crystals actively continues in the 21st century and offers unlimited potential in various display or non-display applications. This book covers novel topics related to LCs and is intended for a wide range of researchers in both, academia and industry, from beginners to advanced level professionals in many scientific areas, viz. materials science and engineering, chemistry, physics, optics, photonics, nanotechnology, electrical engineering, and so on. The book contains topics on nematic and cholesteric LCs, in the form of films or particles, as well as modified LC behaviour with variety of dopants, micron and nano-sized particles, microencapsulation of LC particles and modelling of their behaviour under an externally applied field. Topics related to the effect on nanomaterials on LC behaviour, as well as structural and magnetic properties of different types of iron-containing liquid crystals (metallo-mesogens) are covered, as well. Finally, an overview of different alignment technologies for nematic liquid crystals such as mechanical rubbing of polymer films, obliquely-deposited inorganic films, photo-irradiated, IB-bombarded and patterned surfaces, are briefly reviewed along with several novel alignment concepts. The state of the art in respective fields related to LCs in each chapter is given by leading experts.