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The nanoscale structures of liquid crystals are rarely more exotic than that of the sponge phases of bent-core molecules, visualized here in an electron microscope image made by researchers at the Liquid Crystal Materials Research (MRSEC) Center of the University of Colorado, Boulder.   The image shows a plant stalk-like network that gives the appearance of a grayscale photo of dense tropical foliage, but here the stalk

Molecular ferroelectrics have the potential to become viable material alternatives to inorganic ferroelectrics. Unlike traditional oxide ferroelectrics, molecular ferroelectrics are structurally flexible, can be engineered at the molecular level, and can be assembled on nearly any surface, including flexible sheets and fabrics. The application of molecular ferroelectrics hinges, however, on the availability of strategies to fabricate thin films with defined structure and morphology on a large scale, which at the same time preserve their ferroelectric properties.