Recent advances in colloidal and interfacial phenomena involving liquid crystals.

ABSTRACT: This feature article describes recent advances in several areas of research involving the interfacial ordering of liquid crystals (LCs). The first advance revolves around the ordering of LCs at bio/chemically functionalized surfaces. Whereas the majority of past studies of surface-induced ordering of LCs have involved surfaces of solids that present a limited diversity of chemical functional groups (surfaces at which van der Waals forces dominate surface-induced ordering), recent studies have moved to investigate the ordering of LCs on chemically complex surfaces. For example, surfaces decorated with biomolecules (e.g., oligopeptides and proteins) and transition-metal ions have been investigated, leading to an understanding of the roles that metal-ligand coordination interactions, electric

SUBMITTER: Bai Y 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3089817 | biostudies-literature | 2011 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature