Discotic liquid crystal-nanoparticle hybrid systems

Abstract

Discotic liquid crystals (DLCs) are nanomaterials with sizes ranging from 2 to 6 nm, and they are emerging as one-dimensional organic semiconducting materials. Recently, hybridization of these materials with various metallic and semiconducting nanoparticles (NPs) to alter and improve their properties has been realized. This article provides an overview of the developments in the field of newly immersed discotic nanoscience, a sub-field of liquid crystal (LC) nanoscience. As this field is also of great interest to readers without an LCs background, a brief introduction of the LC field is given first, with special emphasis on DLCs. This is followed by various DLC-NP hybrid systems. Finally, an outlook into the future of this newly emerging, fascinating and exciting field of discotic nanoscience research is provided.

Nano-Objects and Ions in Liquid Crystals: Ion Trapping Effect and Related Phenomena

“…Since the well-developed surface (in other words, the high surface to volume ratio) and strong enough attractive interactions between the surface of the purifying agents and the ion are the two major factors affecting the trapping efficiency, nanoparticles known for their extremely high surface to volume ratio are promising candidates for the development of the ion capturing agents. Recent progress in the design of nanomaterials and their successful incorporation in liquid crystals [105][106][107][108][109][110][111][112][113][114][115][116][117] provides the foundation for considering nano-objects embedded in liquid crystals as ion capturing agents. We will discuss the property of nanoparticles to trap ions in the next section of this manuscript.…”

“…The intriguing properties of nanoparticles in liquid crystals are being actively studied in many laboratories around the globe, and we refer readers to review manuscripts available on this subject for more details [105][106][107][108][109][110][111][112][113][114][115][116][117]. In this section, we will analyze the existing literature from the perspective of the ion capturing phenomenon.…”

“…Metal nanoparticles are widely used as dopants to modify/change/alter the physical properties of liquid crystals [106][107][108]110,113,115]. Table 3 provides a short summary of their effects on the electrical properties of liquid crystals [154][155][156][157][158][159][160][161][162][163][164][165][166][167][168][169][170][171][172].…”

Clicking DNA to gold nanoparticles: poly-adenine-mediated formation of monovalent DNA-gold nanoparticle conjugates with nearly quantitative yield

“…[9][10][11][12][13] During the past two decades, we have witnessed dramatic advances in such functional nanosystems, including the formation of molecule-like crystal structures and the assembly of dynamic nanodevices. [14][15][16][17][18] Despite the rapid progress, most of these applications used polyvalent DNA-AuNP conjugates without knowing the exact number of loaded DNA strands. Although polyvalent DNA-AuNPs possess unique merits, such as signal amplification and cellular internalization; [19][20][21] such inaccuracy may introduce potential imperfectness in the artificially constructed nanosystems.…”

Hybrid phthalocyanine/lead sulphide nanocomposite for bistable memory switches

“…Hybrid nanocomposite materials comprising inorganic quantum dots (QD) in an organic matrix are an emerging class of new materials attracting in recent years immense fundamental and applied research interest and effort [1,2]. These materials exhibit significant promise for a variety of applications including sensors [3,4], displays [5,6], photovoltaics [7,8], photonic devices [9,10] and non-volatile memory devices [11,12].…”