Thermotropic liquid crystals from biomacromolecules.

Liquefaction of Biopolymers: Solvent-free Liquids and Liquid Crystals from Nucleic Acids and Proteins

Biomacromolecules, such as nucleic acids, proteins, and virus particles, are persistent molecular entities with dimensions that exceed the range of their intermolecular forces hence undergoing degradation by thermally induced bond-scission upon heating. Consequently, for this type of molecule, the absence of a liquid phase can be regarded as a general phenomenon. However, certain advantageous p...

Optical Measurements and Speckle Photography for Thermotropic Liquid Crystals Mixtures

In this work, an experimental approach of speckle photography was used for measuring birefringence of thermotropic liquid crystals mixtures at different wavelengths in the visible region. Also the dispersion relations were investigated. The values of the refractive indices were measured for these mixtures of thermotropic liquid crystals in isotropic and liquid crystal phase at different wavelen...

Thermotropic Ionic Liquid Crystals

The last five years' achievements in the synthesis and investigation of thermotropic ionic liquid crystals are reviewed. The present review describes the mesomorphic properties displayed by organic, as well as metal-containing ionic mesogens. In addition, a short overview on the ionic polymer and self-assembled liquid crystals is given. Potential and actual applications of ionic mesogens are al...

Parabolic focal conics and polygonal textures in lipid liquid crystals

2014 Polygonal defect arrays in lipid liquid crystals prepared from dipalmitoyl-, dimyristoyl-, and dilaurylphosphatidylcholine with various concentrations of water have been observed and characterized using optical microscopy. These arrays appear similar to the polygonal arrays previously observed in thermotropic smectic and cholesteric liquid crystals. The parabolic focal conic model proposed...

Thermotropic liquid crystals from engineered polypeptides