A new study by researchers at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign describes a breakthrough in the field of organic ...

The paper is published in the journal Macromolecules. This advance represents a pioneering achievement in both asymmetric chemistry and polymer chemistry. Polyisocyanides are polymers ...

Template-based methods utilize pre-formed nanostructures, such as mesoporous silica or polymer nanoparticles, as templates for the confinement and self-assembly of liquid crystal molecules. The liquid ...

This work is being done in collaboration with Professor Doug Gin. Liquid crystals can be organized to form films with a nanostructured polymer network. These structures can be cross-linked to produce ...

On the other hand, Finkelmann has molecularly engineered a family of polymers known as liquid-crystal elastomers (LCEs) to make a material that combines the orientational order of liquid crystals ...

The insect Anomala albopilosa has an exoskeleton that reflects circularly polarized light. Researchers at the University of ...

The development of advanced instrumentation and analytical methods for x-ray and neutron scattering, specifically tailored for liquid crystal and polymer studies, plays a major part in the group's ...