Compositional heterogeneities of cell membranes are thought to play an important role in many physiological processes. We study how variations in the membrane composition can be driven by nonthermal fluctuating forces and therefore show how these can occur relatively far from any critical point for the membrane. We show that the membrane steady state is not only controlled by the strength of th...

Photoinduced microphase separation in block copolymers (BCP) was achieved for the first time, using a rationally designed diblock copolymer composed of two side-chain liquid crystalline polymers (SCLCP). The miscibility of the two blocks was promoted by the miscibility between the two types of mesognic side groups, while upon UV exposure inducing the trans-cis isomerization of azobenzene mesoge...

Because of the coupling between local lipid composition and the thickness of the membrane, microphase separation in two-component lipid membranes can take place; such effects may underlie the formation of equilibrium nanoscale rafts. Using a kinetic description, this phenomenon is analytically and numerically investigated. The phase diagram is constructed through the stability analysis for line...

The effective pair potentials between different kinds of dendrimers in solution can be well approximated by appropriate Gaussian functions. We find that in binary dendrimer mixtures the range and strength of the effective interactions depend strongly upon the specific dendrimer architecture. We consider two different types of dendrimer mixtures, employing the Gaussian effective pair potentials,...

New, halogen-bonded fluorinated mesogens are reported; the expected microphase separation associated with perfluoroalkyl chains is surprisingly absent in the mesophase.