Current Topics of Interest
The first discotic liquid crystal was found in 1977 by the Indian researcher Sivaramakrishna Chandrasekhar. This molecule has one central benzene ring surrounded by six alkyl chains. Since then, a large number of discoid mesogenic compounds have been discovered in which triphenylene, porphyrin, phthalocyanine, coronene, and other aromatic molecules are involved. The typical columnar liquid-crystalline molecules have a pi-electron-rich aromatic core attached by flexible alkyl chains. This structure is attracting particular attention for potential molecular electronics in which aromatic parts transport electrons or holes and alkyl chains act as insulating parts. The advantages of liquid-crystalline conductors are their anisotropy, processibility, and self-healing characteristics for structural defects.
Read more about this topic: Columnar Phase
Famous quotes containing the words current and/or interest:
“The work of the political activist inevitably involves a certain tension between the requirement that positions be taken on current issues as they arise and the desire that one’s contributions will somehow survive the ravages of time.”
—Angela Davis (b. 1944)
“Good breeding and good nature do incline us rather to help and raise people up to ourselves, than to mortify and depress them, and, in truth, our own private interest concurs in it, as it is making ourselves so many friends, instead of so many enemies.”
—Philip Dormer Stanhope, 4th Earl Chesterfield (1694–1773)