Light-driven phenomena both in living systems and nonliving materials have enabled truly fascinating and incredible dynamic architectures with terrific forms and functions. Recently, liquid crystalline materials endowed with photoresponsive capability have emerged as enticing systems. In this Review, we focus on the developments of light-driven liquid crystalline materials containing photochromic components over the past decade. Design and synthesis of photochromic liquid crystals (LCs), photoinduced phase transitions in LC, and photoalignment and photoorientation of LCs have been covered. Photomodulation of pitch, polarization, lattice constant and handedness inversion of chiral LCs is discussed. Light-driven phenomena and properties of liquid crystalline polymers, elastomers, and networks have also been analyzed. The applications of photoinduced phase transitions, photoalignment, photomodulation of chiral LCs, and photomobile polymers have been highlighted wherever appropriate. The combination of photoc...

Light-Driven Liquid Crystalline Materials: From Photo-Induced Phase Transitions and Property Modulations to Applications.

Field-Cycling NMR Relaxometry

Carbon nanotube dispersion in nematic liquid crystals: An overview

Biaxial nematic (Nb) liquid crystals are a fascinating condensed matter phase that has baffled, for more than thirty years, scientists engaged in the challenge of demonstrating its actual existence, and which has only recently been experimentally found. During this period computer simulations of model Nb have played an important role, both in providing the basic physical properties to be expected from these systems, and in giving clues about the molecular features essential for the thermodynamic stability of Nb phases. However, simulation studies are expected to be even more crucial in the future for unravelling the structural features of biaxial mesogens at the molecular level, and for helping in the design and optimization of devices towards the technological deployment of Nb materials. This review article gives an overview of the simulation work performed so far, and relying on the recent experimental findings, focuses on the still unanswered questions which will determine the future challenges in the field.

https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/0953-8984/20/46/463101/pdf

Computer Simulations of Biaxial Nematics

The presence of ions in liquid crystals is one of the grand challenges that hinder the application of liquid crystals in various devices, which include advanced 3-D and flexible displays, tunable lenses, etc. Not only do they compromise the overall performance of liquid crystal devices, ions are also responsible for slow response, image sticking, and image flickering, as well as many other negative effects. Even highly purified liquid crystal materials can get contaminated during the manufacturing process. Moreover, liquid crystals can degrade over time and generate ions. All of these factors raise the bar for their quality control, and increase the manufacturing cost of liquid crystal products. A decade of dedicated research has paved the way to the solution of the issues mentioned above through merging liquid crystals and nanotechnology. Nano-objects (guests) that are embedded in the liquid crystals (hosts) can trap ions, which decreases the ion concentration and electrical conductivity, and improves the electro-optical response of the host. In this paper, we (i) review recently published works reporting the effects of nanoscale dopants on the electrical properties of liquid crystals; and (ii) identify the most promising inorganic and organic nanomaterials suitable to capture ions in liquid crystals.

https://www.mdpi.com/2073-4352/5/4/501/pdf

David A Dunmur

Papers

Defects and Textures in Liquid Crystals

Liquid Crystals of Disc-Like Molecules

Smectic Liquid Crystals

Polymer Liquid Crystals

Liquid Crystals: Main Types and Classification