Congratulations to graduate student Makiko Quint! Makiko was awarded the UC Merced faculty mentor fellowship for 2015/2016. Her research project, in collaboration with the Ghosh group at UC Merced focuses on liquid crystal nanoparticle composites.
The award assists recipients in acquiring and developing advanced research skills under faculty mentorship and is aimed at increasing the number of students who complete their Ph.D. degree and successfully acquire a faculty appointment.
The fellowship provides one year’s funding for Makiko’s graduate work – congratulations!
“All optical switching of nematic liquid crystal films driven by localized surface plasmons” M.T. Quint, S. Delgado, Z.S. Nuno, L.S. Hirst and S. Ghosh, OPTICS EXPRESS, 23,5, 6888 (2015) Link
We have demonstrated an all-optical technique for reversible in-plane and out-of-plane switching of nematic liquid crystal molecules in few micron thick films. Our method leverages the highly localized electric fields (“hot spots”) and plasmonic heating that are generated in the near-field region of densely packed gold nanoparticle layers optically excited on-resonance with the localized surface plasmon absorption. Using polarized microscopy and transmission measurements, we observe this switching from homeotropic to planar over a temperature range starting at room temperature to just below the isotropic transition, and at on-resonance excitation intensity less than 0.03 W/cm2. In addition, we controllably vary the in-plane directionality of the liquid crystal molecules in the planar state by altering the linear polarization of the incident excitation. Using discrete dipole simulations and control measurements, we establish spectral selectivity in this new and interesting perspective for photonic application using low light power.
“Self-assembled nanoparticle micro-shells templated by liquid crystal sorting”A. R. Rodarte, B.H. Cao, H. Panesar, R.J. Pandolfi, M. Quint, L. Edwards, S. Ghosh, J.E. Hein and L.S. Hirst, Soft Matter, 10.1039/C4SM02326A (2015) Link
A current goal in nanotechnology focuses on the assembly of different nanoparticle types into 3D organized structures. In this paper we report the use of a liquid crystal host phase in a new process for the generation of micron-scale vesicle-like nanoparticle shells stabilized by ligand–ligand interactions. The constructs formed consist of a robust, thin spherical layer, composed of closely packed quantum dots (QDs) and stabilized by local crystallization of the mesogenic ligands. Ligand structure can be tuned to vary QD packing within the shell and made UV cross-linkable to allow for intact shell extraction into toluene. The assembly method we describe could be extended to other nanoparticle types (metallic, magnetic etc.), where hollow shell formation is controlled by thermally sorting mesogen-functionalized nanoparticles in a liquid crystalline host material at the isotropic to nematic transition. This process represents a versatile method for making non-planar 3D nano-assemblies.
Congratulations go to Ron Pandolfi, the latest PhD graduate from the Hirst group. Ron’s PhD defense was on Monday Dec 8th, where he presented his thesis on “Self-assembly and Design of Tunable Soft Materials”
During his time in the lab Ron’s work has included molecular dynamics simulations of semi-flexible polymers and x-ray characterization of different soft systems.
Ron was recently hired at the Advanced Light Source, Lawrence Berkeley National Lab in Berkeley, CA where he’ll be working with soft matter x-ray team.
Professor Hirst is the author of “Fundamentals of Soft Matter Science”
Fundamentals of Soft Matter Science introduces and explores the scientific study of soft matter and molecular self-assembly, covering the major classifications of materials, their structure and characteristics, and everyday applications.
The design and development of multifunctional composite materials from artificial nano-constituents is one of the most compelling current research areas. This drive to improve over nature and produce ‘meta-materials’ has met with some success, but results have proven limited with regards to both the demonstration of synergistic functionalities and in the ability to manipulate the material properties post-fabrication and in situ. Here, magnetic nanoparticles (MNPs) and semiconducting quantum dots (QDs) are co-assembled in a nematic liquid crystalline (LC) matrix, forming composite structures in which the emission intensity of the quantum dots is systematically and reversibly controlled with a small applied magnetic field (<100 mT). This magnetic field-driven brightening, ranging between a two- to three-fold peak intensity increase, is a truly cooperative effect: the LC phase transition creates the co-assemblies, the clustering of the MNPs produces LC re-orientation at atypical low external field, and this re-arrangement produces compaction of the clusters, resulting in the detection of increased QD emission. These results demonstrate a synergistic, reversible, and an all-optical process to detect magnetic fields and additionally, as the clusters are self-assembled in a fluid medium, they offer the possibility for these sensors to be used in broad ranging fluid-based applications.
Soft Matter and biophysics at the University of California, Merced
