/ en-us Â鶹ÒùÔº internet news portal provides the latest news on science including: Â鶹ÒùÔºics, Nanotechnology, Life Sciences, Space Science, Earth Science, Environment, Health and Medicine. Liquid crystals differ from isotropic fluids (fluids with similar properties in different directions) to exhibit highly anisotropic (varying properties in different directions) interactions with surfaces. In a new report on Science Advances, Haridas Mundoor and an interdisciplinary research team in the departments of physics and soft materials research, electrical, computer and energy engineering in the U.S., controlled the surface alignment of nematic molecules (strong scatterers of light due to thermal fluctuations within liquid crystals). By controlling the ionic content, the scientists tuned the orientations of the shape-anisotropic, platelet-like particles. The resulting anisotropic, elastic and electrostatic interactions facilitated colloidal crystals with reconfigurable symmetries and orientations. They harnessed the competing aligning effects of surface functionalization and the electric field that arose due to experimental surface charging and bulk counterions within the setup. /news/2019-09-electrostatically-surface-boundary-conditions-nematic.html Materials Science Thu, 26 Sep 2019 09:40:01 EDT news488702326 Oscillating flow and light pulses can be used to create reconfigurable architecture in liquid crystals. Materials scientists can carefully engineer concerted microfluidic flows and localized optothermal fields to achieve control on nucleation , growth and shape of such liquid domains. In comparison, pure liquids in thermodynamic equilibrium are structurally homogeneous. Experimental work based on theory and simulations have shown that if the liquids are maintained in a controlled state of nonequilibrium, the resulting structures can be indefinitely stabilized. /news/2019-02-sculpting-stable-pure-liquids.html General Â鶹ÒùÔºics Soft Matter Thu, 21 Feb 2019 09:30:06 EST news469873756