title: Thermo-sensitive discotic colloidal liquid crystals.
abstract: We fabricated for the first time thermo-sensitive discotic liquid crystals by grafting poly(N-isopropylacrylamide) (PNIPAM) onto zirconium phosphate (ZrP) platelets using pre-irradiated polymerization. The I-N transition was investigated by adjusting the temperature for a single set of samples. We found that soft disks self-assemble into nematic liquid crystals in a wider thickness-over-diameter ratio than do hard disks.
authors.affiliation: Artie McFerrin Department of Chemical Engineering, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX 77843-3122, USA. zcheng@tamu.edu.
authors.forename: Xuezhen
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: Di
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Zhao
authors.forename: Agustin
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Diaz
authors.forename: Ilse B
authors.initials: IB
authors.lastname: Nava Medina
authors.forename: Huiliang
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: Zhengdong
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Cheng