Deciphering chiral structures in soft materials via resonant soft and tender X-ray scattering
Yu Cao,
Chenrun Feng,
Antal Jakli,
Chenhui Zhu,
Feng Liu
Affiliations
Yu Cao
State Key Laboratory for Mechanical Behaviour of Materials, Shaanxi International Research Center for Soft Matter, Xi'an Jiaotong University, Xi'an 710049, China; Advanced Light Source, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, CA 94720 United States
Chenrun Feng
Advanced Light Source, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, CA 94720 United States; Chemical Physics Interdisciplinary Program, Advanced Materials and Liquid Crystal Institute, Kent State University, Kent, OH 44242 United States
Antal Jakli
Chemical Physics Interdisciplinary Program, Advanced Materials and Liquid Crystal Institute, Kent State University, Kent, OH 44242 United States
Chenhui Zhu
Advanced Light Source, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, CA 94720 United States; Corresponding authors.
Feng Liu
State Key Laboratory for Mechanical Behaviour of Materials, Shaanxi International Research Center for Soft Matter, Xi'an Jiaotong University, Xi'an 710049, China; Corresponding authors.
Chirality is an essential research topic in material science, especially in soft materials including liquid crystals, polymers and biomaterials. There have been many discussions about chiral structures since people discovered and studied this particular property. Yet, due to the lack of effective characterization methods, many questions on helical structures of chiral materials remain unsolved. Here, we review recent applications of resonant soft (RSoXS) and tender resonant X-ray scattering (TReXS) on chirality study in soft materials, with a focus on liquid crystals phases. In the end, a perspective is presented on the potential applications and future improvements of resonant scattering.
