Functional liquid crystalline particles and beyond

ABSTRACT

Recently the preparation and handling of liquid crystalline (LC) particles, which cover the size from some 100 nano-meters to micro- and millimetres found more interest. This review describes ways for their preparation and discusses possible properties and their use and especially the relation between both. The primary shape of these particles can thereby be varied from simple sphere like to prolate or oblate spheres, to tubes, to Janus-like particles or irregular objects. Special attention is given to the manipulation of these functional LC-objects in space, either their movement (including rotation) or their shape variation. Microfluidics allow the preparation of most of these objects and, in addition, control of the director pattern.

Graphical Abstract

KEYWORDS:

• LC-elastomers
• LC-colloids
• shape variation
• microfluidics
• actuator
• micro particles

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft DFG [Ze-230/24-1];