Inhomogeneous relaxation dynamics and phase behaviour of a liquid crystal confined in a nanoporous solid

Soft Matter ◽  
2015 ◽  
Vol 11 (16) ◽  
pp. 3176-3187 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sylwia Całus ◽  
Andriy V. Kityk ◽  
Manfred Eich ◽  
Patrick Huber

Dielectric spectroscopy reveals a radial partitioning in the structure and dynamics of a thermotropic liquid crystal confined in silica nanochannels.

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Luis A Serrano ◽  
Maximiliano J Fornerod ◽  
Ye Yang ◽  
Simon Gaisford ◽  
Francesco Stellacci ◽  
...  

Herein, we report on the phase behaviour of a binary liquid-liquid mixture composed of methanol (MeOH) and the thermotropic liquid crystal 4-Cyano-4'-pentylbiphenyl (5CB). The corresponding phase diagram combines features of a conventional liquid-liquid mixture with characteristics that are particular to the nematic liquid crystal. We observe four arrangements as a function of composition and temperature, namely monophasic isotropic, monophasic nematic, biphasic isotropic-isotropic and biphasic isotropic-nematic, with an upper critical solution temperature of 298 K. The interplay of nematogenic and non-nematogenic species offers a number of applications. Dilution of mesogens with MeOH allows to control the isotropic-to-nematic phase transition of 5CB over a range of 35 K. The tunability of phase mixing and phase composition in an accessible temperature window provides novel routes for the extraction of target compounds, here shown for Eosin Y, Doxorubicin, Crystal Violet and Sudan IV.


Soft Matter ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 14 (22) ◽  
pp. 4615-4620 ◽  
Author(s):  
Luis A. Serrano ◽  
Maximiliano J. Fornerod ◽  
Ye Yang ◽  
Simon Gaisford ◽  
Francesco Stellacci ◽  
...  

We report on the phase behaviour of methanol (MeOH) and the thermotropic liquid crystal 4-cyano-4′-pentylbiphenyl (5CB) and study novel routes for the extraction of target compounds.


2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Luis A Serrano ◽  
Maximiliano J Fornerod ◽  
Ye Yang ◽  
Simon Gaisford ◽  
Francesco Stellacci ◽  
...  

Herein, we report on the phase behaviour of a binary liquid-liquid mixture composed of methanol (MeOH) and the thermotropic liquid crystal 4-Cyano-4'-pentylbiphenyl (5CB). The corresponding phase diagram combines features of a conventional liquid-liquid mixture with characteristics that are particular to the nematic liquid crystal. We observe four arrangements as a function of composition and temperature, namely monophasic isotropic, monophasic nematic, biphasic isotropic-isotropic and biphasic isotropic-nematic, with an upper critical solution temperature of 298 K. The interplay of nematogenic and non-nematogenic species offers a number of applications. Dilution of mesogens with MeOH allows to control the isotropic-to-nematic phase transition of 5CB over a range of 35 K. The tunability of phase mixing and phase composition in an accessible temperature window provides novel routes for the extraction of target compounds, here shown for Eosin Y, Doxorubicin, Crystal Violet and Sudan IV.


2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Niamh Mac Fhionnlaoich ◽  
Stephen Schrettl ◽  
Nicholas B. Tito ◽  
Ye Yang ◽  
Malavika Nair ◽  
...  

The arrangement of nanoscale building blocks into patterns with microscale periodicity is challenging to achieve via self-assembly processes. Here, we report on the phase transition-driven collective assembly of gold nanoparticles in a thermotropic liquid crystal. A temperature-induced transition from the isotropic to the nematic phase leads to the assembly of individual nanometre-sized particles into arrays of micrometre-sized aggregates, whose size and characteristic spacing can be tuned by varying the cooling rate. This fully reversible process offers hierarchical control over structural order on the molecular, nanoscopic, and microscopic level and is an interesting model system for the programmable patterning of nanocomposites with access to micrometre-sized periodicities.


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