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We have recently identified a binary liquid-liquid mixture with highly unusual properties, composed of methanol and the thermotropic liquid crystal 4-Cyano-4’-pentylbiphenyl (5CB). Depending on the temperature and volumetric composition, four arrangements may be observed near room temperature, namely monophasic isotropic, monophasic nematic, biphasic isotropic-isotropic and biphasic isotropic-nematic. Dilution of 5CB mesogens with MeOH allows to linearly tune the isotropic-to-nematic phase transition over a range of 35 K.
The tunability of the phase mixing and phase composition around ambient conditions represents an attractive platform for temperature-driven liquid-liquid extraction of target compounds, allows to develop novel concepts in microfluidics and enables to form liquid crystal microdroplets for applications in optics and materials templating.
Key publications:
Temperature-induced liquid crystal microdroplet formation in a partially miscible liquid mixture (link)
M Patel, APN Radhakrishnan, L Bescher, E Hunter-Sellars, B Schmidt- Hansberg, E Amstad, S Ibsen, S Guldin
Soft Matter, vol. 17, pp. 947 – 954 (2021).
Microfluidics of binary liquid mixtures with temperature-dependent miscibility (link)
MJ Fornerod, E Amstad, S Guldin
Molecular Systems Design & Engineering, vol. 5, pp. 358 – 365 (2020).
Phase behaviour and applications of a binary liquid-liquid mixture of methanol and a thermotropic liquid crystal (link)
LA Serrano, MJ Fornerod, Y Yang, S Gaisford, F Stellacci, S Guldin
Soft Matter vol 14, pp 4615–4620 (2018)