title: Synthesis of nickel bowl-like nanoparticles and their doping for inducing planar alignment of a nematic liquid crystal.
abstract: Nickel bowl-like nanoparticles have first been synthesized by a magnetic self-assembly process stabilized by polyvinyl pyrrolidone (PVP) without any sphere-like materials as templates. A trace of doped bowls can induce liquid crystal (LC) molecules into a perfect planar alignment, attributable to their bowl-like shape and magnetic self-assembly into a 1D structure. It would provide a novel method of establishing LCs alignment by doping special nanostructured materials.
authors.affiliation: School of Chemistry and Environment, Beihang University, Beijing 100191, China.
authors.forename: Wei
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Zhou
authors.forename: Lijuan
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Lin
authors.forename: Dongyu
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Zhao
authors.forename: Lin
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Guo