ArticleNature materials2016
Topological defects in liquid crystals as templates for molecular self-assembly.
Article in Nature materials, 2016. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 59 papers.
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Who cites it
59 citing papers in PubMed.
- Nanoparticle-Induced Interfacial Director Straining Enables Ultrasensitive Molecular Detection at Microfluidic Liquid Crystal Interfaces.ACS applied materials & interfaces · 2026Article
- Shedding light on bacterial fitness in a tug-of-war with liquid crystal emulsions.Nature communications · 2026Article
- Boundary geometry controls a topological defect transition that determines lumen nucleation in embryonic development.Nature materials · 2026Article
- Boron Nitride Nanotubes Assist the Self-Assembly of Spherical Cholesteric Liquid Crystal Shells of Cellulose Nanocrystals in Water.Langmuir : the ACS journal of surfaces and colloids · 2026Article
- Phonon-polaritonic skyrmions: transition from bubble- to Néel-type.Light, science & applications · 2026Article
- Fluorescence Transduction of Liquid Crystal Ordering Transitions for Biosensing.Journal of the American Chemical Society · 2026Article
- Periodically-modulated unipolar and bipolar orders in nematic fluids towards miniaturized nonlinear vectorial optics.Nature communications · 2025Article
- Spatial Control of Chiral Self-Assembly and Lithographic Applications in Liquid Crystal Polymer Network.Advanced materials (Deerfield Beach, Fla.) · 2025Article
- Inverse design of parameter-controlled disclination paths.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2025Article
- Spatially Programmable Chirality in Cellulose Nanocrystal Films via Rotational Magnetic Flow.ACS applied materials & interfaces · 2025Article
- Tailoring the energy landscape of a bloch point domain wall with curvature.Nature communications · 2025Article
- Electrically Switchable Multi-Stable Topological States Enabled by Surface-Induced Frustration in Nematic Liquid Crystal Cells.Advanced materials (Deerfield Beach, Fla.) · 2025Article
- Controlled Synthesis of Perovskite Nanocrystals at Room Temperature by Liquid Crystalline Templates.ACS nano · 2025Article
- An aperiodic chiral tiling by topological molecular self-assembly.Nature communications · 2025Article
- Experimental identification of topological defects in 2D colloidal glass.Nature communications · 2025Article
- Article
- Formylation boosts the performance of light-driven overcrowded alkene-derived rotary molecular motors.Nature chemistry · 2024Article
- Advancing interactive systems with liquid crystal network-based adaptive electronics.Nature communications · 2024Article
- Qualitatively and Quantitatively Different Configurations of Nematic-Nanoparticle Mixtures.Nanomaterials (Basel, Switzerland) · 2024Article
- Moiré effect enables versatile design of topological defects in nematic liquid crystals.Nature communications · 2024Article
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Abstract
Topological defects in liquid crystals (LCs) have been widely used to organize colloidal dispersions and template polymerization, leading to a range of assemblies, elastomers and gels. However, little is understood about molecular-level assembly processes within defects. Here, we report that nanoscopic environments defined by LC topological defects can selectively trigger processes of molecular self-assembly. By using fluorescence microscopy, cryogenic transmission electron microscopy and super-resolution optical microscopy, we observed signatures of molecular self-assembly of amphiphilic molecules in topological defects, including cooperativity, reversibility and controlled growth. We also show that nanoscopic o-rings synthesized from Saturn-ring disclinations and other molecular assemblies templated by defects can be preserved by using photocrosslinkable amphiphiles. Our results reveal that, in analogy to other classes of macromolecular templates such as polymer-surfactant complexes, topological defects in LCs are a versatile class of three-dimensional, dynamic and reconfigurable templates that can direct processes of molecular self-assembly.
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