Liquid crystals and precious metal: from nanoparticle dispersions to functional plasmonic nanostructures

ABSTRACT

Precious metals and liquid crystals (LC) are quite different yet share some common features, for example, their beauty, distinguished optical properties and a competition of high prices per gramme. Triggered by the vision of artificial materials with extremely unusual properties (metamaterials), facilitated by the methods of modern nanotechnology and motivated by John Goodby’s and other colleagues’ synthetic activities, combinations of LCs and gold nanoparticles or nanostructures have attracted much attention during the last decade. This noncomprehensive article describes some examples and insights in this field. Perspectives and opportunities of further research are discussed.

Graphical Abstract

KEYWORDS:

• Nanotechnology
• liquid crystals
• plasmonics
• metasurfaces
• metamaterials

Acknowledgements

Funding of our research by the European Science Foundation (SONS II), by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG, GRK 1464) and by the President of the University of Paderborn (stipend for B.Z.) is gratefully acknowledged. T.H. is supported by the Ohio Third Frontier (OTF) programme for Ohio Research Scholars ‘Research Cluster on Surfaces in Advanced Materials’.

Dedication

The authors would like to felicitate John Goodby, an inspiring mind and a wonderful colleague, on the occasion of his 65th birthday.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft: [Grant Number GRK 1464]; European Science Foundation (SONS II) and Ohio Development Services Agency (Ohio Third Frontier: Research Cluster on Surfaces).