title: Thermotropic liquid crystals from biomacromolecules.
abstract: Complexation of biomacromolecules (e.g., nucleic acids, proteins, or viruses) with surfactants containing flexible alkyl tails, followed by dehydration, is shown to be a simple generic method for the production of thermotropic liquid crystals. The anhydrous smectic phases that result exhibit biomacromolecular sublayers intercalated between aliphatic hydrocarbon sublayers at or near room temperature. Both this and low transition temperatures to other phases enable the study and application of thermotropic liquid crystal phase behavior without thermal degradation of the biomolecular components.
authors.affiliation: Department of Polymer Chemistry, Zernike Institute for Advanced Materials and.
authors.forename: Kai
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics and Liquid Crystal Materials Research Center, University of Colorado, Boulder, CO 80309-0390; and.
authors.forename: Dong
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.affiliation: Department of Polymer Chemistry, Zernike Institute for Advanced Materials and.
authors.forename: Alessio
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Marcozzi
authors.affiliation: Department of Polymer Chemistry, Zernike Institute for Advanced Materials and.
authors.forename: Lifei
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Zheng
authors.affiliation: Department of Molecular Dynamics, Groningen Biomolecular Sciences and Biotechnology Institute and Zernike Institute for Advanced Materials, University of Groningen, 9747 AG Groningen, The Netherlands;
authors.forename: Juanjuan
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Su
authors.affiliation: Department of Polymer Chemistry, Zernike Institute for Advanced Materials and.
authors.forename: Diego
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Pesce
authors.affiliation: Max Planck Institute for Polymer Research, 55128 Mainz, Germany.
authors.forename: Wojciech
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Zajaczkowski
authors.affiliation: Department of Polymer Chemistry, Zernike Institute for Advanced Materials and.
authors.forename: Anke
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Kolbe
authors.affiliation: Max Planck Institute for Polymer Research, 55128 Mainz, Germany.
authors.forename: Wojciech
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Pisula
authors.affiliation: Max Planck Institute for Polymer Research, 55128 Mainz, Germany.
authors.forename: Klaus
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Müllen
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics and Liquid Crystal Materials Research Center, University of Colorado, Boulder, CO 80309-0390; and noel.clark@colorado.edu a.herrmann@rug.nl.
authors.forename: Noel A
authors.initials: NA
authors.lastname: Clark
authors.affiliation: Department of Polymer Chemistry, Zernike Institute for Advanced Materials and noel.clark@colorado.edu a.herrmann@rug.nl.
authors.forename: Andreas
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Herrmann
mesh_terms: D004247:DNA / Q000737:chemistry*; D050866:Liquid Crystals / Q000737:chemistry*; D044367:Phase Transition
chemical_list: D004247:DNA
keywords: biomaterial; lipid; liquid crystal; smectic; surfactant