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Nano Research 2016, 9(9): 2581-2589 https://doi.org/10.1007/s12274-016-1144-4
Research Article | Issue | Published: 15 June 2016

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

Show Author's Information Qian Wang1,§,  Yang Shang1,3,§,  Li Yu2,  Cheng Zou2,  Wenhuan Yao2,  Dongyu Zhao1,  Ping Song2,  Huai Yang2( ),  Lin Guo1( )
Key Laboratory of Bio-Inspired Smart Interfacial Science and TechnologyMinistry of EducationSchool of Chemistry and EnvironmentBeihang UniversityBeijing100191China
Department of Advanced Materials & NanotechnologyCollege of EngineeringPeking UniversityBeijing100871China
Key Laboratory of Micro-Nano Measurement-Manipulation and PhysicsMinistry of EducationSchool of Physics and Nuclear Energy EngineeringBeihang UniversityBeijing100191China

§ These authors contributed equally to this work.

Keywords:
liquid crystals, facet-dependent, Cu2O nanocrystals, alignment, photoactuators
Cite this article:
Wang Q, Shang Y, Yu L, et al. Facet-dependent Cu2O nanocrystals in manipulating alignment of liquid crystals and photomechanical behaviors. Nano Research, 2016, 9(9): 2581-2589. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12274-016-1144-4
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Abstract Full text Electronic supplementary material About this article

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.


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About this article

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

Show Author's information Qian Wang1,§, Yang Shang1,3,§, Li Yu2, Cheng Zou2, Wenhuan Yao2, Dongyu Zhao1, Ping Song2, Huai Yang2( ), Lin Guo1( )
Key Laboratory of Bio-Inspired Smart Interfacial Science and TechnologyMinistry of EducationSchool of Chemistry and EnvironmentBeihang UniversityBeijing100191China
Department of Advanced Materials & NanotechnologyCollege of EngineeringPeking UniversityBeijing100871China
Key Laboratory of Micro-Nano Measurement-Manipulation and PhysicsMinistry of EducationSchool of Physics and Nuclear Energy EngineeringBeihang UniversityBeijing100191China

§ These authors contributed equally to this work.

Abstract

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.

Keywords: liquid crystals, facet-dependent, Cu2O nanocrystals, alignment, photoactuators

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Publication history
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Acknowledgements

Publication history

Received: 26 February 2016
Revised: 09 May 2016
Accepted: 10 May 2016
Published: 15 June 2016
Issue date: September 2016

Copyright

© Tsinghua University Press and Springer‐Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2016

Acknowledgements

Acknowledgements

This work was mainly supported by National Basic Research Program of China (No. 2014CB931802), the Major Project of International Cooperation of the Ministry of Science and Technology (No. 2013DFB50340), National Natural Science Foundations of China (Nos. 51272012, 21471013, 51532001, 51333001, 51173003, 51402006 and 51303007), the Major Program of Chinese Ministry of Education (No. 313002), the Beijing Natural Science Foundation (No. 2163052) and China Postdoctoral Science Foundation Funded Project (No. 2015M570916).

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