Series In Soft Condensed Matter: Liquid Crystals with Nano and Microparticles (ePub)

-->While liquid crystals are today widely known for their successful application in flat panel displays (LCDs), academic liquid crystal research is more and more targeting situations where these anisotropic fluids are put to completely different use, in varying contexts. A particularly strong focus is on colloidal liquid crystals, where particles, bubbles or drops are dispersed in a liquid crystal phase. The liquid crystal can act as a host phase, with the inclusions constituting foreign guests that disturb the local order in interesting ways, often resulting in large-scale positional arrangement and/or uniform alignment of the guests. But it may also be formed by solid particles themselves, if these are of nanoscale dimensions and of disc- or rod-shape, and if they are suspended in an isotropic liquid host at sufficient concentration.This book aims to cover both the modern research tracks, gathering pioneering researchers of the different subfields to give a concise overview of the basis as well as the prospects of their respective specialties. The scope spans from curiosity-driven fundamental scientific research to applied sciences. Over the course of the next decade, the former is likely to generate new tracks of the latter type, considering the exploratory and productive phase of this young research field. --> -->Contents:Introduction (G Scalia and J P F Lagerwall)Volume 1:Fundamentals:A Phenomenological Introduction to Liquid Crystals and Colloids (J P F Lagerwall)Nanoparticle Dispersions: A Colloid and Polymer Solution Perspective (P van der Schoot)Nematic Liquid Crystals Doped with Nanoparticles: Phase Behavior and Dielectric Properties (M A Osipov and M V Gorkunov)Methods for Studying Liquid Crystals and Their Inclusions:Conventional and Nonlinear Optical Microscopy of Liquid Crystal Colloids (T Lee and I I Smalyukh)X-Ray Scattering (G Ungar, Z Chen and X Zeng)Raman Spectroscopy (H F Gleeson) Manipulation of Inclusions with Optical Tweezers (M Skarabot)Atomic Force Microscopy on Liquid Crystals (C Bahr and B Schulz)Micron Scale Inclusions in Liquid Crystals:Solid Microparticles in Nematic Liquid Crystals (Igor Muševič) Inclusions in Freely Suspended Smectic Films (R Stannarius and K Harth)Liquid Crystal-Enabled Electrophoresis and Electro-Osmosis (O D Lavrentovich)Volume 2:Nanoparticles in Liquid Crystals:Nanoparticles in Discotic Liquid Crystals (S Kumar)Metallic and Semiconducting Nanoparticles in LCs (A Sharma, M Urbanski, T Moria, H-S Kitzerow and T Hegmann)Inorganic Nanotubes and Nanorods in Liquid Crystals (I Drevenšek-Olenik)Liquid Crystals from Mesogens Containing Gold Nanoparticles (W Lewandowski and E Gorecka)Carbon Nanotubes in Thermotropic Low Molar Mass Liquid Crystals (S Schymura, J Park, I Dierking and G Scalia)Carbon Nanotubes Dispersed in Liquid Crystal Elastomers (Y Yang and Y Ji)Ferromagnetic and Ferroelectric Nanoparticles in Liquid Crystals (Y Reznikov, A Glushchenko and Y Garbovskiy)Nanoparticle Guests in Lyotropic Liquid Crystals (S Dölle, J H Park, S Schymura, Hyeran Jo, G Scalia and J P F Lagerwall)Control of Nanoparticle Self-Assemblies Using Distorted Liquid Crystals (E Lacaze and D Coursault)Nanoparticles and Networks Created Within Liquid Crystals (S-W Kang and S Kundu)Liquid Crystals Formed by Nanoparticle Suspensions:Nematic Phase Formation in Suspensions of Carbon Nanotubes (C Zakri and Ph Poulin)Nematic Phase Formation in Suspensions of Graphene Oxide (N Fresneau and S Campidelli)Electro-Optical Switching of Liquid Crystals of Graphene Oxide (J Song)Liquid Crystalline Phases in Suspensions of Pigments in Non-Polar Solvent (S Klein, R Richardson and A Eremin)Cholesteric Liquid Crystal Formation in Suspensions of Cellulose Nanocrystals (C Honorato-Rios, J Bruckner, C Schütz, S Wagner, Z Tosheva, L Bergström and J P F Lagerwall)Subject Index --> -->Readership: This book would be beneficial as a reference work for researchers active in the field as well as for other researchers aiming to enter the field. -->