Journal ArticleDOI
Liquid-crystal materials find a new order in biomedical applications.
TLDR
New areas of application in the realms of biology and medicine are stimulating innovation in basic and applied research into liquid-crystal materials, leading to new techniques for optically probing biological systems.Abstract:
With the maturation of the information display field, liquid-crystal materials research is undergoing a modern-day renaissance. Devices and configurations based on liquid-crystal materials are being developed for spectroscopy, imaging and microscopy, leading to new techniques for optically probing biological systems. Biosensors fabricated with liquid-crystal materials can allow label-free observations of biological phenomena. Liquid-crystal polymers are starting to be used in biomimicking colour-producing structures, lenses and muscle-like actuators. New areas of application in the realms of biology and medicine are stimulating innovation in basic and applied research into these materials.read more
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The Halogen Bond
Gabriella Cavallo,Pierangelo Metrangolo,Pierangelo Metrangolo,Roberto Milani,Tullio Pilati,Arri Priimagi,Giuseppe Resnati,Giancarlo Terraneo +7 more
TL;DR: The specific advantages brought up by a design based on the use of the halogen bond will be demonstrated in quite different fields spanning from material sciences to biomolecular recognition and drug design.
Journal ArticleDOI
Functionalizing nanoparticles with biological molecules: developing chemistries that facilitate nanotechnology.
Kim E. Sapsford,W. Russ Algar,Lorenzo Berti,Kelly Boeneman Gemmill,Brendan J. Casey,Eunkeu Oh,Michael H. Stewart,Igor L. Medintz +7 more
TL;DR: Chemistries that Facilitate Nanotechnology Kim E. Sapsford,† W. Russ Algar, Lorenzo Berti, Kelly Boeneman Gemmill,‡ Brendan J. Casey,† Eunkeu Oh, Michael H. Stewart, and Igor L. Medintz .
Journal ArticleDOI
Programmable and adaptive mechanics with liquid crystal polymer networks and elastomers
Timothy J. White,Dirk J. Broer +1 more
TL;DR: The historical development of liquid crystalline polymeric materials is detailed, with emphasis on the thermally and photogenerated macroscale mechanical responses--such as bending, twisting and buckling--and on local-feature development (primarily related to topographical control).
Journal ArticleDOI
Printed artificial cilia from liquid-crystal network actuators modularly driven by light.
Casper L. van Oosten,Cees W. M. Bastiaansen,Cees W. M. Bastiaansen,Dirk J. Broer,Dirk J. Broer +4 more
TL;DR: It is demonstrated that all-polymer microdevices can be fabricated using inkjet printing technology in combination with self-organizing liquid-crystal network actuators, exploiting the self-assembling properties of the liquid crystal to create large strain gradients, and light-driven actuation is chosen to allow simple and remote addressing.
Journal Article
Cellulosic nanocomposites: a review
TL;DR: A review of recent work shows that considerable progress has been achieved in addressing these issues and that there is potential to use cellulosic nano-components in a wide range of high-tech applications as mentioned in this paper.
References
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Journal ArticleDOI
Photonic structures in biology
Peter Vukusic,J. Roy Sambles +1 more
TL;DR: An astonishing variety of natural photonic structures exists: a species of Brittlestar uses photonic elements composed of calcite to collect light, Morpho butterflies use multiple layers of cuticle and air to produce their striking blue colour and some insects use arrays of elements to reduce reflectivity in their compound eyes.
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Liquid crystalline spinning of spider silk.
Fritz Vollrath,David P. Knight +1 more
TL;DR: Successful copying of the spider's internal processing and precise control over protein folding, combined with knowledge of the gene sequences of its spinning dopes, could permit industrial production of silk-based fibres with unique properties under benign conditions.
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Biomimetism and bioinspiration as tools for the design of innovative materials and systems.
TL;DR: Materials found in nature combine many inspiring properties such as sophistication, miniaturization, hierarchical organizations, hybridation, resistance and adaptability to propose more reliable, efficient and environment-respecting materials requires a multidisciplinary approach.
Journal ArticleDOI
A new opto-mechanical effect in solids.
TL;DR: It is proposed that large, reversible shape changes in solids, of between 10%-400%, can be induced optically by photoisomerizing monodomain nematic elastomers.
Journal ArticleDOI
Fast liquid-crystal elastomer swims into the dark
TL;DR: It is demonstrated here that by dissolving—rather than covalently bonding—azo dyes into an LCE sample, its mechanical deformation in response to non-uniform illumination by visible light becomes very large and is more than two orders of magnitude faster than previously reported.