Magnetic hybrid liquid crystalline composites have been obtained either by thermal decomposition of a cobalt precursor in a solution containing a liquid crystal polymer or by dispersing preformed cobalt nanorods in a liquid crystal polymer matrix. The final materials are all mesomorphous and ferromagnetic. Their magnetic characteristics are compared as a function of the synthesis method.

PDLCs consist of liquid crystal droplets that are dispersed in a solid polymer matrix. The resulting material is a sort of "swiss cheese" polymer with liquid crystal droplets filling in the holes. These tiny droplets (a few microns across for practical applications) are responsible for the unique behavior of the material. By changing the orientation of the liquid crystal molecules with an elect...

Using confocal microscopy, we have studied the morphology of polymer dispersed liquid crystals ~PDLC! as a function of polymer/liquid crystal composition, polymer cure temperature, and ultraviolet ~UV! curing power and determined how this morphology affects the electro-optical properties. The PDLC morphology consists of a spongelike texture where spherically shaped liquid crystalline domains ar...

Polymer-supported liquid-crystal membranes have been designed for neutral-carrier-type potassium ion-selective electrodes, aiming for practical applications of high-performance liquid-crystalline membrane ion sensors. Two types of polymer-supported liquid-crystal membranes were tested for their usefulness; one is microporous poly(tetra fluoroethylene) (PTFE) membranes impregnated by thermotropi...

Stable solutions of conjugated poly(phenylene vinylene)s and poly(phenylene ethynylene)s in nematic liquid crystals are reported. The polymers all contain triptycene units fused into their backbones to obtain the high solubility needed to maintain solubility in complex liquid crystalline media. The polymer backbones align with the director of the nematic liquid crystal, and by applying electric...

A liquid crystal polymer (LCP) self-assembled on a photoirradiated substrate can modify the viscoelastic response of liquid crystal medium on the substrate. Sum-frequency vibrational spectroscopy shows that the phenyl groups of LCP are oriented epitaxially with layer thickness and an in-plane alignment order much higher than that at the photoirradiated surface can be yielded. The liquid crystal...

FT-IR microspectroscopy is used to compare the polymer and liquid crystal droplet regions within polymer-dispersed liquid crystal (PDLC) films. Thermoplastic polymer matrix PDLCs contain a higher amount of liquid crystal within the polymer regions than do thermoset polymer matrix films. IR functional group images of a droplet show characteristic textures corresponding to the visual images of th...

Partially phase-separated liquid-crystal/polymer dispersions display highly fibrillar domain morphologies that are dramatically different from the typical structures found in isotropic mixtures. To explain this, we numerically explore the coupling between phase ordering and phase-separation kinetics in model two-dimensional fluid mixtures phase separating into a nematic phase, rich in liquid cr...