Inner workings of liquid crystals

Liquid crystals are used in everything from tiny digital watches to huge television screens, from optical devices to biomedical detectors. Yet little is known of their precise molecular structure when portions of such crystals interact with air. New research led by Juan de Pablo, the Liew Family Professor at the Institute for Molecular Engineering, uncovers previously unknown features that develop from the interface between air and certain widely studied liquid crystals. 'Liquid crystals are high-fidelity reporters of molecular events, and their effectiveness relies on controlling their molecular orientation at an interface,' de Pablo said. 'The precise understanding of this interface gained from our research will enable the design of better liquid crystal sensors and displays.' For the research published Feb. 8 in the Journal of the American Chemical Society , de Pablo worked with a team of scientists at the University of Chicago, including Binhua Lin and Benoit Roux, and at the University of Illinois at Chicago and the University of Wisconsin. They used advanced synchrotron X-rays at Argonne National Laboratory and large-scale simulations to reconstruct the molecular details.