Polymerizable liquid crystals as building blocks for functional, nanostructured materials

The development of synthetic materials with nanometer-scale architectural s ophistication is one of the new frontiers in polymer and materials chemistr y. Liquid crystals represent a viable venue for such efforts because they o ffer excellent control over parameters such as orientation, organization, g eometry, and symmetry on the molecular level via molecular design. In addit on, this control can be extended to the macroscopic regime through appropri ate alignment techniques. New advances in the design of functional, nanostr uctured organic materials using polymerizable liquid crystals as building b locks are presented herein. 1 Introduction 2 Liquid Crystals: An Overview 3 Polymerizable Lyotropic Liquid Crystals as Building Blocks for Functional , Nanostructured Materials 3.1 Ordered Nanocomposites 3.2 Nanostructured, Heterogeneous Catalysts 4 Polymerizable Thermotropic Liquid Crystals as Chiral Building Blocks for Noncentrosymmetric Polymers 5 Summary.