BEGIN:VCALENDAR
VERSION:2.0
PRODID:-//Talks.cam//talks.cam.ac.uk//
X-WR-CALNAME:Talks.cam
BEGIN:VEVENT
SUMMARY:Understanding and exploiting self-assembly in liquid crystals on m
 ultiple length scales - Dr Mamatha Nagaraj\, University of Leeds Departmen
 t of Physics
DTSTART:20200205T193000Z
DTEND:20200205T203000Z
UID:TALK138646@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:Tommy Tai
DESCRIPTION:We are all familiar with the concept of materials as solids\, 
 liquids and gases. There is a fourth\nstate of matter that exist between s
 olid and liquid states known as liquid crystalline state.\n\nLiquid crysta
 ls elegantly combine characteristics of the conventional solid and isotrop
 ic liquid and are a fascinating class of opto-electronic materials. The mo
 st familiar application of liquid crystals is the liquid crystal displays 
 or LCDs. There are a number of liquid crystal phases and they show unique 
 molecular arrangements and functionalities.\n\nIn this presentation\, I wi
 ll outline some of the amazing complex molecular and supramolecular self-a
 ssembled structures formed by liquid crystal molecules. I will explain\npr
 omising methods of exploiting the self-assembled architectures to create n
 ovel functional\nand responsive materials and devices. One of them is by u
 sing liquid crystals as a medium to confine nano and microparticles. The e
 ffect of dispersing non spherical litho-particles\, influence of particle 
 geometry and nature on the physical properties of the colloid will be disc
 ussed. The second method is physically transferring the structural feature
 s of liquid crystals into polymers by imprinting or templating. Templated 
 structures offer great potential\nin understanding interfacial interaction
 s between liquid crystals and polymers at the nanoscale. The templated str
 uctures allow the use of an assured templated matrix rather than the molec
 ular details of individual chemical compounds to exhibit complex three dim
 ensional\nordering. Experimental results of templating one of the recently
  discovered liquid crystal phases\, the twist bend nematic phase\, will be
  shown. The third method is a bottom-up strategy of preparing controlled n
 ano- and micro- structures by combining the spontaneous self-assembly of l
 iquid crystals with nanophase separation behaviour of copolymers. This pro
 cedure offers new way of controlling the orientation of the polymer due to
  controllable interfacial interactions between the liquid crystalline comp
 onents and air and substrate.
LOCATION:Wolfson Lecture Theatre\,  Department of Chemistry\, Lensfield Ro
 ad
END:VEVENT
END:VCALENDAR