The Effect of Mesogenic Coronas on the Type and Anisotropy of Gold Nanoparticle Superlattices: When Can the Tail Wag the Dog? (2023)
Journal Article
Zhao, Y., Li, Y., Cao, Y., Mehl, G. H., Liu, F., & Ungar, G. (2023). The Effect of Mesogenic Coronas on the Type and Anisotropy of Gold Nanoparticle Superlattices: When Can the Tail Wag the Dog?. Chemistry: a European journal, 29(11), Article e202203673. https://doi.org/10.1002/chem.202203673

Correlations between size of nanoparticles (NPs) and structure and shape of flexible mesogenic coronas and the ensuing formation of superlattices are not really understood and closer inspection shows surprising features. Here 2 and 4 nm gold NPs were... Read More about The Effect of Mesogenic Coronas on the Type and Anisotropy of Gold Nanoparticle Superlattices: When Can the Tail Wag the Dog?.

Self-assembly of Gold Nanoparticles into an Adjustable Plasmonic 3D Lattice using Janus-type Forked Mesogenic Ligands (2022)
Journal Article
Zhao, Y. Y., Cao, Y., Siligardi, G., Mehl, G. H., Liu, F., & Ungar, G. (2022). Self-assembly of Gold Nanoparticles into an Adjustable Plasmonic 3D Lattice using Janus-type Forked Mesogenic Ligands. Chemistry - An Asian Journal, Article e202200057. https://doi.org/10.1002/asia.202200057

We report the formation of a 3D body-centred self-assembled superlattice of gold nanoparticles whose interparticle gap, and hence its plasmonic properties, are adjustable exclusively in the xy-plane. Thus, even though the particles are spherical, the... Read More about Self-assembly of Gold Nanoparticles into an Adjustable Plasmonic 3D Lattice using Janus-type Forked Mesogenic Ligands.

Deciphering helix assembly in the heliconical nematic phase via tender resonant X-ray scattering (2021)
Journal Article
Cao, Y., Feng, J., Nallapaneni, A., Arakawa, Y., Zhao, K., Zhang, H., …Liu, F. (2021). Deciphering helix assembly in the heliconical nematic phase via tender resonant X-ray scattering. Journal of Materials Chemistry C, 9(31), 10020-10028. https://doi.org/10.1039/d1tc02027g

Being a link between a uniaxial nematic and a chiral nematic, the twist bend nematic (NTB) has been an intriguing topic for research over the last decade as a key to understanding chirality generation. Accurate description and understanding of resona... Read More about Deciphering helix assembly in the heliconical nematic phase via tender resonant X-ray scattering.

The beauty of twist-bend nematic phase: Fast switching domains, first order fréedericksz transition and a hierarchy of structures (2021)
Journal Article
Panov, V. P., Song, J. K., Mehl, G. H., & Vij, J. K. (2021). The beauty of twist-bend nematic phase: Fast switching domains, first order fréedericksz transition and a hierarchy of structures. Crystals, 11(6), 621. https://doi.org/10.3390/cryst11060621

The twist-bend nematic phase (NTB) exhibits a complicated hierarchy of structures responsible for several intriguing properties presented here. These are: the observation of a fast electrooptic response, the exhibition of a large electroclinic effect... Read More about The beauty of twist-bend nematic phase: Fast switching domains, first order fréedericksz transition and a hierarchy of structures.

A facile synthesis of a room-temperature chiral discotic nematic liquid crystal based on pentaalkynylbenzene core (2021)
Journal Article
Yu, H., & Mehl, G. H. (in press). A facile synthesis of a room-temperature chiral discotic nematic liquid crystal based on pentaalkynylbenzene core. Liquid crystals, 1-8. https://doi.org/10.1080/02678292.2021.1900433

The preparation of discotic liquid crystal with a wide thermal nematic phase range remains a challenge. Here, a method to synthesise a class of discotic liquid crystal with exclusive and stable chiral nematic phase over a wide temperature range, base... Read More about A facile synthesis of a room-temperature chiral discotic nematic liquid crystal based on pentaalkynylbenzene core.

Electrochemically Induced Mesomorphism Switching in a Chlorpromazine Hydrochloride Lyotropic Liquid Crystal (2021)
Journal Article
Crapnell, R. D., Alhasan, H. S., Partington, L. I., Zhou, Y., Ahmed, Z., Altalhi, A. A., …Wadhawan, J. D. (2021). Electrochemically Induced Mesomorphism Switching in a Chlorpromazine Hydrochloride Lyotropic Liquid Crystal. ACS Omega, 6(7), 4630-4640. https://doi.org/10.1021/acsomega.0c05284

The discovery of electrochemical switching of the Lα phase of chlorpromazine hydrochloride in water is reported. The phase is characterized using polarizing microscopy, X-ray scattering, rheological measurements, and microelectrode voltammetry. Fast,... Read More about Electrochemically Induced Mesomorphism Switching in a Chlorpromazine Hydrochloride Lyotropic Liquid Crystal.

The interplay between spatial and heliconical orientational order in twist-bend nematic materials (2021)
Journal Article
Saha, R., Feng, C., Welch, C., Mehl, G. H., Feng, J., Zhu, C., …Jakli, A. (2021). The interplay between spatial and heliconical orientational order in twist-bend nematic materials. Physical chemistry chemical physics : PCCP, 23(7), 4055-4063. https://doi.org/10.1039/d0cp06633h

The helical pitch formed by organic molecules, such as the α-helix of proteins, usually requires hydrogen bonding between chiral units and long-range positional order. It was recently found that certain liquid crystal oligomers can have a twist-bend... Read More about The interplay between spatial and heliconical orientational order in twist-bend nematic materials.

Molecular biaxiality determines the helical structure - infrared measurements of the molecular order in the nematic twist-bend phase of difluoro terphenyl dimer (2021)
Journal Article
Merkel, K., Loska, B., Welch, C., Mehl, G. H., & Kocot, A. (2021). Molecular biaxiality determines the helical structure - infrared measurements of the molecular order in the nematic twist-bend phase of difluoro terphenyl dimer. Physical chemistry chemical physics : PCCP, 23(7), 4151-4160. https://doi.org/10.1039/d1cp00187f

Fourier-transform infrared polarized spectroscopy was employed, to obtain the three components of the infrared absorbance for a series of bent-shaped dimers containing double fluorinated terphenyl core (DTC5Cn, n = 5, 7, 9, 11). The data were used to... Read More about Molecular biaxiality determines the helical structure - infrared measurements of the molecular order in the nematic twist-bend phase of difluoro terphenyl dimer.

The role of intermolecular interactions in stabilizing the structure of the nematic twist-bend phase (2021)
Journal Article
Merkel, K., Loska, B., Welch, C., Mehl, G. H., & Kocot, A. (2021). The role of intermolecular interactions in stabilizing the structure of the nematic twist-bend phase. RSC advances, 11(5), 2917-2925. https://doi.org/10.1039/d0ra10481g

The understanding of the relationship between molecular structure and the formation of the nematic twist-bend phase is still at an early stage of development. This is mainly related to molecular geometry, while the correlation between the nematic twi... Read More about The role of intermolecular interactions in stabilizing the structure of the nematic twist-bend phase.

Two helices from one chiral centre – self organization of disc shaped chiral nanoparticles (2020)
Journal Article
Mehl, G. H., Yu, H., Qu, W., & Liu, F. (2020). Two helices from one chiral centre – self organization of disc shaped chiral nanoparticles. Chemical science, 12(5), 1778-1782. https://doi.org/10.1039/d0sc05100d

Gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) have been prepared and surfacefunctionalized with a mixture of 1-hexanethiol co-ligands and chiral discogen ligands separated from a disulfide function via a flexible spacer. Polarized optical microscopy together with di... Read More about Two helices from one chiral centre – self organization of disc shaped chiral nanoparticles.