Nanoscale Engineering of Dyes for Liquid Crystal Device Applications

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This project, entitled the "Nanoscale Engineering of Dyes for Liquid Crystal Device Applications", will tackle an adventurous scientific programme aimed at the "rational design and controlled molecular engineering" of dichroic dyes to create new classes of functional soft materials for a variety of applications. The specific outcome of the science of the programme will be the creation of new dichroic dyes by rational design strategies, including computer modelling approaches, that will ultimately drive the synthesis of target materials and their incorporation into liquid crystals hosts. The design methodology will provide new insights into self-organisation and self-assembly processes in condensed fluids, which are expected to be generally applicable to molecular materials, and will be of interest to chemists, physicists, engineers and theoreticians alike. In particular, it is also intended that the work will lead to the creation of new materials for applications in novel light scattering display devices for use outdoors, such as tablet computers, and in bistable devices, which can display information without the need for continuously applied electric fields.The materials we intend to investigate include molecular materials, dimers, and supermolecular dyes that have nanosegregated structures. The target materials may be liquid crystals or may be designed as dopants to add to liquid crystal matrices. In addition, for more complex systems, such as supermolecules, the materials may be composed of both mesomorphic and chromophoric entities. We will use a variety of chromophores, eg anthraquinone, perylene, etc to give materials with a range of tunable colours that will be created by the nanoscale engineering of molecular structures and by the design of dye mixtures.