Abstract

The societal impact of liquid crystals (LCs) in electrooptical displays arrived after decades of research involving molecular-level design of LCs and their alignment layers, and elucidation of LC electrooptical phenomena at device scales. The anisotropic optical, mechanical and dielectric properties of LCs used in displays also make LCs remarkable amplifiers of their interactions with chemical and biological species, thus opening up the possibility that LCs may play an influential role in a data-driven society that depends on information coming from sensors. In this article, we describe ongoing efforts to design LC systems tailored for chemical and biological sensing, efforts that mirror the challenges and opportunities in LC design and alignment tackled several decades ago during development of LC electrooptical displays. Now, however, traditional design approaches based on structure–property relationships are being supplemented by data-driven methods such as machine learning. Recent studies also show that computational chemistry can greatly increase the rate of discovery of chemically responsive LC systems. Additionally, non-equilibrium states of LCs are being revealed to be useful for design of biological sensors and more complex autonomous systems that integrate self-regulated actuation along with sensing. These topics and others are addressed in this article with the aim of highlighting approaches and goals for future research that will realise the full potential of LC-based sensors.

Details

Title
Areas of opportunity related to design of chemical and biological sensors based on liquid crystals
Author
Nayani, Karthik 1 ; Yang, Yu 2 ; Yu, Huaizhe 3 ; Purvil Jani 3 ; Mavrikakis, Manos 4 ; Abbott, Nicholas 3 

 School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, USA; Department of Chemical Engineering, University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, AR, USA 
 School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, USA; Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering, University of Wisconsin, Madison, WI, USA 
 School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, USA 
 Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering, University of Wisconsin, Madison, WI, USA 
Pages
24-35
Publication year
2020
Publication date
Apr 2020
Publisher
Taylor & Francis Ltd.
ISSN
1358314X
e-ISSN
14645181
Source type
Scholarly Journal
Language of publication
English
ProQuest document ID
2455523607
Copyright
© 2020 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group. This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ (the “License”). Notwithstanding the ProQuest Terms and Conditions, you may use this content in accordance with the terms of the License.