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Highlights

Mar 12, 2012
Ohio State University

Integrating Magnetic Plastics Into Next-Generation Electronic Devices

Scientists researching electronic devices that promise to extend current technologies beyond the ITRS roadmap – the industry generated timeline for the development of silicon-based electronics – have for some time focused on the potential for the field of “spintronics” to deliver fast, low-power computing. However, progress in the area of computer
Feb 27, 2012
University of Colorado at Boulder

Shape-Controlled Colloidal Interactions In Liquid Crystals

When an object, such as a colloidal particle, is put into a liquid crystal, it alters the otherwise uniform orientation of the molecules, creating a field of orientational disturbance around itself. This field acts on the object to align it with particular orientation relative to the average liquid crystal direction, indicated by the arrows in the image.
Feb 27, 2012
University of Colorado at Boulder

Polymerized Nanoporous Lyotropic Liquid Crystals for use with Room Temperature Ionic Liquids

LCMRC researchers have created a new family of electrolytes that promise to revolutionalize Lithium ion battery technology. Electrolytes are the electrically conducting media in batteries. Good ones carry high current density without chemical degradation and maintain their desirable characteristics over many charging and discharging cycles.
Feb 27, 2012
University of Colorado at Boulder

Picoprojectors using Ferroelectric Liquid Crystal Microdisplays

Center researchers are collaborating with spin-off Displaytech to develop FLC materials for application in picoprojectors. The high quality time sequential color and high brightness enabled by FLC switching speed makes FLC-on-silicon an excellent display technology for picoprojectors, currently being marketed by 3M.
Feb 27, 2012
University of Colorado at Boulder

Liquid Crystals a Sensitive Probe of DNA Hybridization

Liquid crystals that realign in response to DNA can reveal subtle sequence alterations, even a single base mutation. Center investigator Dan Schwartz.and doctoral student Andrew Price showed that nematic liquid crystals, which naturally align themselves perpendicular to the surface of a surfactant-coated glass slide, tilt slightly following the addition of short lengths of single stranded DNA.
Feb 24, 2012
University of Pennsylvania

Quantum Dot Circuits

Cherie R. Kagan and Christopher B. Murray

Kagan and Murray fabricated the first electronic circuits from nanometer scale semiconductor particles known as quantum dots. These quantum dots are synthesized in solution and tailored in the shape of cubes so when they are assembled into solids, they fill space. The nanoscale cubes allow for high performance thin film electronics. The chemistry developed further allowed these circuits to be realized on plastics for flexible electronic applications.
Feb 24, 2012
University of Pennsylvania

Soft Spots in Disordered Colloidal Packings

Andrea J. Liu and Arjun G. Yodh

Like liquids, solids can flow under applied shear stresses.  In crystalline solids, figuring out vulnerable regions where the material will break under stress is well-established—they are typically controlled by a population of defects in the crystal structure known as dislocations.  In disordered solids, however, defects are everywhere, making the task of identifying such vulnerable spots much more daunting.