NLCMF Home page

Nematic liquid crystal elastomers
in the final stage of preparation prepared in Prof. Heino Finkelmann's lab.

Harris KD <i>et al.</i> Vapor senstive LCE film that changes shape when exposed to solvent developed in Dirk
Broer's lab: Self-Assembled Polymer Films for Controlled Agent-Driven Motion: Nano Letters 2005 <b>(5)</b> p 1857

Cholesteric LCE developed in Heino Finkelmann's lab. When stretched, changes in cholesteric pitch produce color changes

Prof. William (Billy) Oates and his graduate Hongbo Wang visited the facility in April, 2009 for one week
learning material preparation. During their stay, they learned preparation LCE by spin casting and
cell filling methods, preparing vapor sensitive, cholesteric, and nematic films. Contact us to schedule a visit.

Light driven plastic motor developed in Prof. Tomiki Ikeda's, Tokyo Institute of technology

Photograph taken during the prepration of Ikeda's photosensitive LCE. The NLCMF website has detailed material
synthesis and preparation procedures with hundred's of reference photographs for scientist and engineers
wishing to prepare their own materials

Slide from a student presentation about their research project at the facility. Student working at the facility
learn material preparation as part of their research experience

LCE in action! The series of images shows a reversible change in length of the LCE when heated
above the isotropic phase transition temperature. Depending on
the LCE's mesogen (LC component) and connectivity, the change in dimension may exceed 400%

Dr. Oscar Baldovino-Pantaleon from the Instituto Nacional de Astrofisica, Optica y Electronica, Mexico,
visited the facility for approximatley 5 months learning LCE material preparation.

Nanoparticles that exhibit LC properties such as gold nanorods are also available from
the facility free of charge.

Procedures found on the NCLMF website also include detailed descriptions on experimental setup

X-ray pattern from a smectic LCE. Procedures found on the NCLMF website
provide reference spectroscopic information and analysis procedures

The New Liquid Crystal Materials Facility (NLCMF) was established at the Liquid Crystal Institute, Kent State University by a group of professors led by Prof. Peter Palffy-Muhoray, with the goal of providing the community a central, comprehensive resource for new liquid crystalline (LC) materials. LC materials have unique and interesting properties, but may not be well known in the scientific and engineering communities. Our hope is that as more researchers discover and work with these materials, novel applications for these materials can be found. Toward that goal, the NLCMF provides the following to the academic, business, and government research community:

To learn how to make the materials available from the NCLMF, researchers either visit the facility to teach us how to make the material, or we visit other research institutes to learn how to make the materials. Researchers involved with the program include: Prof. Heino Finkelmann, Freiburg University, Prof. Tomiki Ikeda, Tokyo Institute of Technology, Prof. Kenji Urayama, Kyoto University, Prof. Patrick Mather, Case Western University, Prof. Julie Kornfield, CalTech, Prof. Rudolph Zentel, Mainz University, Prof. Helena Godinho, University of Lisbon. Click here for a complete list of people working with the NLCMF.

Free material samples: Simply send us an email telling us the material you would like, and we will mail it to you
A website providing a central location for information about select liquid crystalline materials as well as detailed information for synthesizing and preparing materials
Student research experience synthesizing and characterizing materials

Information is divided into four categories: About the NLCMF, Knowledge Base, Material Synthesis & Preparation Student Activity, each accessible from the top menu.