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Nanostructured Materials Based on Liquid Crystals

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A special issue of International Journal of Molecular Sciences (ISSN 1422-0067). This special issue belongs to the section "Materials Science".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 December 2020) | Viewed by 12222

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Special Issue Editors

Dr. Rafael Martín-Rapún

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Guest Editor

1. Instituto de Nanociencia de Aragón, Universidad de Zaragoza, 50018-Zaragoza, Spain
2. Instituto de Ciencia de Materiales de Aragón, Universidad de Zaragoza-CSIC, 50009-Zaragoza, Spain
Interests: supramolecular chemistry; liquid crystals; nanoparticles; polymers; polypeptides; drug delivery

Dr. Ana Omenat

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Guest Editor

Instituto de Ciencia de Materiales de Aragón, Universidad de Zaragoza-CSIC, 50009-Zaragoza, Spain
Interests: liquid crystals; supramolecular chemistry; dendrimers; polymerization; templating; membranes; stimuli-responsive materials; nanoparticles

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Our society is immersed in a process of continuous and rapid progress, which demands even more sophisticated materials. Some of the characteristics that the new materials must comply with are related to shape, symmetry, size, processability, response to external stimuli, low density, biocompatibility, and properties such as conductivity, luminescence, mechanics, etc.

Liquid crystals (LCs) are known since the end of the XIX century and continue to offer a useful response to many of the current demands in the field of materials science. LCs result from the self-assembly of molecules of a variety of shapes, sizes, and chemical structures, thus, giving rise to several mesophases. The characteristic self-assembly of LCs constitutes a very useful tool in the preparation of well-defined nanostructured materials. The main characteristic of LCs is their unique combination of order and mobility on the molecular and supramolecular level, which makes them extremely versatile as functional materials themselves or as precursors, intermediates, or in combination with others in the preparation of functional materials.

This Special Issue will highlight the latest research achievements in the research of Nanostructured Materials based on Liquid Crystals. Both research and review articles are welcome.

Potential topics include but are not limited to the following:

Macromolecular liquid crystals: dendrimers, block copolymers
Liquid crystals as templates: nanoparticle synthesis, nanoporous materials, membranes
Chiral liquid crystal nanostructures
Stimuli-responsive liquid crystals: sensors, actuators

Dr. Rafael Martín-Rapún
Dr. Ana Omenat
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. International Journal of Molecular Sciences is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. There is an Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal. For details about the APC please see here. Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

liquid crystals
supramolecular chemistry
self-assembly
template synthesis
membranes
nanostructures
mesophases
stimuli-responsive materials
actuators
sensors

Published Papers (3 papers)

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Research

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18 pages, 3336 KiB

Open AccessArticle

A Highly Versatile Polymer Network Based on Liquid Crystalline Dendrimers

by Ramón Cervera-Procas, José-Luis Serrano and Ana Omenat

Int. J. Mol. Sci. 2021, 22(11), 5740; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/ijms22115740 - 27 May 2021

Cited by 2 | Viewed by 2262

Abstract

Highly functional macromolecules with a well-defined architecture are the key to designing efficient and smart materials, and these polymeric systems can be tailored for specific applications in a diverse range of fields. Herein, the formation of a new liquid crystalline polymeric network based on the crosslinking of dendrimeric entities by the Cu^I-catalyzed variant of the Huisgen 1,3-dipolar cycloaddition of azides and alkynes to afford 1,2,3-triazoles is reported. The polymeric material obtained in this way is easy to process and exhibits a variety of properties, which include mesomorphism, viscoelastic behavior, and thermal contraction. The porous microstructure of the polymer network determines its capability to absorb solvent molecules and to encapsulate small molecules, like organic dyes, which can be released easily afterwards. Moreover, all these properties may be easily tuned by modifying the chemical structure of the constituent dendrimers, which makes this system a very interesting one for a number of applications. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Nanostructured Materials Based on Liquid Crystals)

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13 pages, 3680 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Polymer Stabilized Cholesteric Liquid Crystal Siloxane for Temperature-Responsive Photonic Coatings

by Weixin Zhang, Johan Lub, Albertus P.H.J. Schenning, Guofu Zhou and Laurens T. de Haan

Int. J. Mol. Sci. 2020, 21(5), 1803; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/ijms21051803 - 6 Mar 2020

Cited by 32 | Viewed by 4371

Abstract

Temperature-responsive photonic coatings are appealing for a variety of applications, including smart windows. However, the fabrication of such reflective polymer coatings remains a challenge. In this work, we report the development of a temperature-responsive, infrared-reflective coating consisting of a polymer-stabilized cholesteric liquid crystal siloxane, applied by a simple bar coating method. First, a side-chain liquid crystal oligosiloxane containing acrylate, chiral and mesogenic moieties was successfully synthesized via multiple steps, including preparing precursors, hydrosilylation, deprotection, and esterification reactions. Products of all the steps were fully characterized revealing a chain extension during the deprotection step. Subsequently, the photonic coating was fabricated by bar-coating the cholesteric liquid crystal oligomer on glass, using a mediator liquid crystalline molecule. After the UV-curing and removal of the mediator, a transparent IR reflective polymer-stabilized cholesteric liquid crystal coating was obtained. Notably, this fully cured, partially crosslinked transparent polymer coating retained temperature responsiveness due to the presence of non-reactive liquid-crystal oligosiloxanes. Upon increasing the temperature from room temperature, the polymer-stabilized cholesteric liquid crystal coating showed a continuous blue-shift of the reflection band from 1400 nm to 800 nm, and the shift was fully reversible. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Nanostructured Materials Based on Liquid Crystals)

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Review

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51 pages, 9971 KiB

Open AccessReview

Charge Mobility in Discotic Liquid Crystals

by Roberto Termine and Attilio Golemme

Int. J. Mol. Sci. 2021, 22(2), 877; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/ijms22020877 - 16 Jan 2021

Cited by 45 | Viewed by 4920

Abstract

Discotic (disk-shaped) molecules or molecular aggregates may form, within a certain temperature range, partially ordered phases, known as discotic liquid crystals, which have been extensively studied in the recent past. On the one hand, this interest was prompted by the fact that they represent models for testing energy and charge transport theories in organic materials. However, their long-range self-assembling properties, potential low cost, ease of processability with a variety of solvents and the relative ease of tailoring their properties via chemical synthesis, drove the attention of researchers also towards the exploitation of their semiconducting properties in organic electronic devices. This review covers recent research on the charge transport properties of discotic mesophases, starting with an introduction to their phase structure, followed by an overview of the models used to describe charge mobility in organic substances in general and in these systems in particular, and by the description of the techniques most commonly used to measure their charge mobility. The reader already familiar or not interested in such details can easily skip these sections and refer to the core section of this work, focusing on the most recent and significant results regarding charge mobility in discotic liquid crystals. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Nanostructured Materials Based on Liquid Crystals)

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