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Confinement and Liquid Crystal Films
Liquid crystals (LCs) are known to act as good lubricants, however, the reason for this remains unclear. One contributing factor is thought to be the formation of ordered layers... -
The interpenetration of two poly(ethylene oxide) polymer brushes under confin...
Coating two surfaces with polymer brushes has been shown on many occasions to reduce friction by orders of magnitude. These ultra-low frictions are believed to stem from be the... -
Quantum and thermal critical scaling in XY-dipolar antiferromagnet LiErF4
We have established the material LiErF4 as a dipolar antiferromagnet with planar anisotropy, exhibiting both classical and quantum phase transitions. Where, thermal transition... -
Adsorbtion from nematic mixtures
The aim is to measure the preferential adsorption of one component in a nematic mixture. The base is 4-pentyl 4¿- cyanobiphenyl (5CB) and it is doped with 4-pentyl 4¿-... -
Structure of Cellulose Nanofibril Gels
This proposal is part of a new project based on understanding the formation of gels in suspensions of partially oxidised cellulose nanofibrils with small amounts of salt or... -
Confinement Effects on Fluorinated Liquid Crystal Adsorption
The adsorption of a liquid crystal dopant to a surface can have a significant impact on its properties such as electro-optic response and lubrication. The interesting adsorption... -
Investigation of zwitterionic surfactant templated bio-polymer films as senso...
We have found it possible to deposit mesostructured surfactant templated polymer thin films on solid substrates. To date the majority of work has used hexadecyltrimethylammonium... -
Can surfactants be pushed out of polymer layers by applying compression?
For many applications such as paints, foods and drug formulations, aggregation of colloidal particles is prevented by combining polymer and surfactant adsorption. Key to this... -
Measuring the structure of a poly(vinyl pyrrolidone) gel layer under compress...
Polymers adsorbed or otherwise attached to interfaces provide an extremely powerful tool to control the forces that act between interfaces. The functionality of these attached... -
Fluorination Effects at Liquid Crystal Surfaces
The adsorption of a liquid crystal dopant to a surface can have a significant impact on its properties such as electro-optic response and lubrication. Both the interesting... -
Confinement and Lubrication in Liquid Crystal Films
Liquid crystals (LCs) are known to act as good lubricants, however, the reason for this remains unclear. One contributing factor is thought to be the formation of ordered layers... -
Adsorbtion from nematic mixtures: bulk characterization
The aim is to measure any tendency towards phase separation in a nematic mixture to complement an adsorption study on the same mixture. The base is 4-pentyl 4¿- cyanobiphenyl...
