Experimental Advances in Nanoparticle-Driven Stabilization of Liquid-Crystalline Blue Phases and Twist-Grain Boundary Phases
George Cordoyiannis,
Marta Lavrič,
Vasileios Tzitzios,
Maja Trček,
Ioannis Lelidis,
George Nounesis,
Samo Kralj,
Jan Thoen,
Zdravko Kutnjak
Affiliations
George Cordoyiannis
Condensed Matter Physics Department, Jožef Stefan Institute, 1000 Ljubljana, Slovenia
Marta Lavrič
Condensed Matter Physics Department, Jožef Stefan Institute, 1000 Ljubljana, Slovenia
Vasileios Tzitzios
Institute of Nanoscience and Nanotechnology, National Centre for Scientific Research “Demokritos”, Aghia Paraskevi, 15310 Athens, Greece
Maja Trček
Condensed Matter Physics Department, Jožef Stefan Institute, 1000 Ljubljana, Slovenia
Ioannis Lelidis
Faculty of Physics, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Zografou, 15784 Athens, Greece
George Nounesis
Institute of Nuclear and Radiological Sciences and Technology, National Centre for Scientific Research “Demokritos”, Aghia Paraskevi, 15310 Athens, Greece
Samo Kralj
Faculty of Natural Sciences, University of Maribor, 2000 Maribor, Slovenia
Jan Thoen
Department of Physics and Astronomy, KU Leuven, 3001 Leuven, Belgium
Zdravko Kutnjak
Condensed Matter Physics Department, Jožef Stefan Institute, 1000 Ljubljana, Slovenia
Recent advances in experimental studies of nanoparticle-driven stabilization of chiral liquid-crystalline phases are highlighted. The stabilization is achieved via the nanoparticles’ assembly in the defect lattices of the soft liquid-crystalline hosts. This is of significant importance for understanding the interactions of nanoparticles with topological defects and for envisioned technological applications. We demonstrate that blue phases are stabilized and twist-grain boundary phases are induced by dispersing surface-functionalized CdSSe quantum dots, spherical Au nanoparticles, as well as MoS2 nanoplatelets and reduced-graphene oxide nanosheets in chiral liquid crystals. Phase diagrams are shown based on calorimetric and optical measurements. Our findings related to the role of the nanoparticle core composition, size, shape, and surface coating on the stabilization effect are presented, followed by an overview of and comparison with other related studies in the literature. Moreover, the key points of the underlying mechanisms are summarized and prospects in the field are briefly discussed.
