Liquid Crystals Beyond Displays Chemistry, Physics, and Applications

by Li, Quan

• ISBN13: 9781118078617
• ISBN10: 1118078616
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2012-05-29
• Publisher: Wiley

Summary

The responsive nature and diversity of liquid crystals provide tremendous opportunities as well as challenges for insights in fundamental science, and opens the door to various applications. Most modern electronic displays are liquid crystal-based, but R&D is moving rapidly beyond into such areas as electro-optic devices, energy, molecular motors, tunable lasers, and biosensors. This unique reference guides readers to the advances and directions of liquid crystal research, helping spur continued progress in the field. It emphasizes the chemistry, physics, and applications of liquid crystals in photonics, power generators, lasers, molecular motors, carbon nanotubes, and biosensors.

Author Biography

Quan Li, PhD, is the Director of the Organic Synthesis and Advanced Materials Laboratory at the Liquid Crystal Institute at Kent State University, where he is also an Adjunct Professor in the Chemical Physics Interdisciplinary Program. He has directed research projects supported by the Department of Energy (DOE), the Air Force Office of Scientific Research (AFOSR), the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL), the Department of Defense Multidisciplinary University Research Initiative (MURI), the National Science Foundation (NSF), the Ohio Board of Regents (OBR), and several companies.

Table of Contents

Preface vii

Contributors ix

1. Liquid Crystal Lasers 1
Hideo Takezoe

2. Self-Organized Semiconducting Discotic Liquid Crystals for Optoelectronic Applications 29
Chenming Xue and Quan Li

3. Magnetic Liquid Crystals 83
Rui Tamura, Yoshiaki Uchida, and Katsuaki Suzuki

4. Ferroelectric Liquid Crystals for Nonlinear Optical Applications 111
Yongqiang Zhang and Jesús Etxebarria

5. Photo-Stimulated Phase Transformations in Liquid Crystals and Their Non-Display Applications 157
C. V. Yelamaggad, S. Krishna Prasad, and Quan Li

6. Light-Driven Chiral Molecular Switches or Motors in Liquid Crystal Media 213
Yan Wang and Quan Li

7. Liquid Crystal-Functionalized Nano- and Microfibers Produced by Electrospinning 251
Jan P. F. Lagerwall

8. Functional Liquid Crystalline Block Copolymers: Order Meets Self-Assembled Nanostructures 285
Xia Tong and Yue Zhao

9. Semiconducting Applications of Polymerizable Liquid Crystals 303
Mary O’Neill and Stephen M. Kelly

10. Liquid Crystals of Carbon Nanotubes and Carbon Nanotubes in Liquid Crystals 341
Giusy Scalia

11. Liquid Crystals in Metamaterials 379
Augustine M. Urbas and Dean P. Brown

12. Ferroelectric Colloids in Liquid Crystals 403
Yuriy Reznikov

13. Fact or Fiction: Cybotactic Groups in the Nematic Phase of Bent Core Mesogens 427
Bharat R. Acharya and Satyendra Kumar

14. Lyotropic Chromonic Liquid Crystals: Emerging Applications 449
Heung-Shik Park and Oleg D. Lavrentovich

15. Liquid Crystal-Based Chemical Sensors 485
Jacob T. Hunter and Nicholas L. Abbott

16. Polymer Stabilized Cholesteric Liquid Crystal for Switchable Windows 505
Deng-Ke Yang

17. Liquid Crystals for Nanophotonics 525
Timothy D. Wilkinson and R. Rajesekharan

Index 569