Nowadays, chemically synthesized proteins and peptides are attractive building blocks and have potential in many important applications as biomaterials. In this review, applications of biomaterials to thermotropic liquid crystals are discussed. The review covers the improvement of the performance of liquid crystal displays using liquid crystal physical gels consisting of a liquid crystal and amino acid-based gelators, and also new functionalization of liquid crystals. Moreover, the influence of DNA, which is one of the more attractive biomaterials, dispersed in thermotropic liquid crystals and its potential use in the liquid crystal industry is described. In addition, we found interesting results during electrooptical measurements of liquid crystals doped with DNA, and explain them from the point of view of biological applications. These recent approaches suggest that these biomaterials may be applicable in the electronic device industry and should be considered as an interesting material with their physical properties having the potential to create or refine an industrial product.
We have fabricated a twist nematic liquid crystal (TN) cell doped with guanine oligonucleotide (G10b) and measured its voltage-dependent transmittance (V–t) response. It is found that the operating voltage of a TN cell doped with G10b is higher than that of an undoped cell at 10 Hz. At a high frequency above 100 Hz, the V–t curve tends toward a saturated value equivalent to that of an undoped cell. The increase in the operating voltage depends on the concentration of G10b. This result suggests that G10b acts as an ion and produces an opposing electrical field between the electrodes.
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