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Title: Functional, Hierarchical Colloidal Liquid Crystal Gels and Liquid Crystal Elastomers Nanocomposites. Final Report

Abstract

Biological systems rely on a hierarchy of dynamic, complex and reconfigurable compartments to carry out functions essential for life. This hierarchical organization serves as an amplifier that allows highly localized, molecular events to propagate into the mesoscale, resulting in dynamic functional properties of biological systems that have not yet been fully realized in synthetic material designs. We pursued a program of research in which we recreated such principles using synthetic liquid crystals (LC) as a versatile platform. We elucidated new hierarchical design strategies that heavily leverage surface anchoring, coexisting phases and interfacial tension gradient to realize equilibrium and non-equilibrium, dynamic mesoscale phenomena in the context of micrometer-sized LC droplets containing multiple compartments. Specifically, we unmasked how equilibrium and dynamical phenomena emerged from hierarchical organizations in reconfigurable, thermotropic liquid crystalline assemblies. The long-term impact of the project is to advance new hierarchical designs of complex soft matter systems in which biomimetic principles, including the propagation of events or information over multiple temporal and spatial scales, are enacted in a facile manner.

Authors:
ORCiD logo [1]
  1. Univ. of Wisconsin, Madison, WI (United States)
Publication Date:
Research Org.:
Univ. of Wisconsin, Madison, WI (United States)
Sponsoring Org.:
USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES) (SC-22). Materials Sciences & Engineering Division
OSTI Identifier:
1630990
Report Number(s):
DOE-SC0004025
DOE Contract Number:  
SC0004025
Resource Type:
Technical Report
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Subject:
36 MATERIALS SCIENCE; Hierarchical soft materials; bioinspired materials; materials beyond equilibrium; liquid crystals; active materials

Citation Formats

Abbott, Nicholas Lawrence. Functional, Hierarchical Colloidal Liquid Crystal Gels and Liquid Crystal Elastomers Nanocomposites. Final Report. United States: N. p., 2020. Web. doi:10.2172/1630990.
Abbott, Nicholas Lawrence. Functional, Hierarchical Colloidal Liquid Crystal Gels and Liquid Crystal Elastomers Nanocomposites. Final Report. United States. https://doi.org/10.2172/1630990
Abbott, Nicholas Lawrence. 2020. "Functional, Hierarchical Colloidal Liquid Crystal Gels and Liquid Crystal Elastomers Nanocomposites. Final Report". United States. https://doi.org/10.2172/1630990. https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1630990.
@article{osti_1630990,
title = {Functional, Hierarchical Colloidal Liquid Crystal Gels and Liquid Crystal Elastomers Nanocomposites. Final Report},
author = {Abbott, Nicholas Lawrence},
abstractNote = {Biological systems rely on a hierarchy of dynamic, complex and reconfigurable compartments to carry out functions essential for life. This hierarchical organization serves as an amplifier that allows highly localized, molecular events to propagate into the mesoscale, resulting in dynamic functional properties of biological systems that have not yet been fully realized in synthetic material designs. We pursued a program of research in which we recreated such principles using synthetic liquid crystals (LC) as a versatile platform. We elucidated new hierarchical design strategies that heavily leverage surface anchoring, coexisting phases and interfacial tension gradient to realize equilibrium and non-equilibrium, dynamic mesoscale phenomena in the context of micrometer-sized LC droplets containing multiple compartments. Specifically, we unmasked how equilibrium and dynamical phenomena emerged from hierarchical organizations in reconfigurable, thermotropic liquid crystalline assemblies. The long-term impact of the project is to advance new hierarchical designs of complex soft matter systems in which biomimetic principles, including the propagation of events or information over multiple temporal and spatial scales, are enacted in a facile manner.},
doi = {10.2172/1630990},
url = {https://www.osti.gov/biblio/1630990}, journal = {},
number = ,
volume = ,
place = {United States},
year = {Thu May 28 00:00:00 EDT 2020},
month = {Thu May 28 00:00:00 EDT 2020}
}