Facet-dependent Cu₂O nanocrystals in manipulating alignment of liquid crystals and photomechanical behaviors

Manipulating the alignment of liquid crystals (LCs) is a hot and fundamental issue for their applications in block copolymers, photonics, actuators, biosensors, and liquid-crystal displays. Here, the surface characteristic of Cu₂O nanocrystals was well controlled to manipulate the orientation of the LCs. The mechanism of the orientation of the LCs induced by Cu₂O nanocrystals was elucidated based on the interaction between the LCs and Cu₂O nanocrystals. To comprehensively prove our assumption, different types of LCs (nematic, cholesteric, and smectic) as well as the same type of LCs with different polarities were selected in our system. Moreover, the photomechanical behaviors of the LC polymer composites demonstrated that the alignment of LCs can be effectively manipulated using Cu₂O nanocrystals.