Design of Liquid Crystalline Soft Matter for Modern Applications beyond Liquid Crystal Displays

Dear Colleagues,

Soft matter is omni-present in material science and biology and consists of compounds of low- up to high molar mass, i.e. polymers. Materials with liquid-crystalline properties are part of soft matter with a certain degree of fluid behavior and thus respond to external stimuli such as mechanical stress, surface tension, electric and magnetic fields, and eventually also to light. Owing to their fluid nature thermotropic and lyotropic liquid crystals (LC) are of pivotal importance for technical applications and biological functions—well-known examples include the lyotropic LC behavior of lecithine - the phospholipid forming cell membranes - the colloidal LC formation of DNA, microtubuli and viruses, and the liquid crystal mixtures used in LC displays. Recent hot topics in the liquid crystal world include ferroelectric nematics, LC materials for organic electronics (photovoltaics, light emitting diodes, and field-effect transistors), energy materials (electrolytes for batteries and fuel cells), spintronics, and soft-robotics, among others. The length scale of such materials spans from low-molar-mass materials to polymers and from the self-assembly of simple, small, defined molecules to hierarchical ordering from small molecules to larger aggregates (supermolecules, supramolecular aggregates). This in turn produces the anisotropic building block which generates the LC material. This Issue will focus primarily on the design of LC materials tailored with respect to final applications. Authors are invited to explain in detail their invented molecular structure, the specific synthesis and finally the structure-property relationship in order to demonstrate whether the molecular design idea achieved the expected outcome.

Prof. Dr. Matthias Lehmann
Guest Editor

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• materials design
• soft matter
• liquid crystals
• organic electronics
• soft robotics
• stimuli response
• energy materials
• spintronics
• supermolecules
• supramolecular aggregates
• molecular machines