Eliminating topological defects to achieve monodomain liquid crystals is highly significant for the fundamental studies of soft matter and building long-range ordered materials.However,liquid crystals are metastable a...Eliminating topological defects to achieve monodomain liquid crystals is highly significant for the fundamental studies of soft matter and building long-range ordered materials.However,liquid crystals are metastable and sensitive to external stimuli,such as flow,confinement,and electromagnetic fields,which cause their intrinsic polycrystallinity and topological defects.Here,we achieve the monodomain liquid crystals of graphene oxide over 30 cm through boundary-free sheargraphy.The obtained monodomain liquid crystals exhibit large-area uniform alignment of sheets,which has the same optical polarized angle and intensity.The monodomain liquid crystals provide bidirectionally ordered skeletons,which can be applied as lightweight thermal management materials with bidirectionally high thermal and electrical conductivity.Furthermore,we extend the controllable topology of two-dimensional colloids by introducing singularities and disclinations in monodomain liquid crystals.Topological structures with defect strength from−2 to+2 were realized.This work provides a facile methodology to study the structural order of soft matter at a macroscopic level,facilitating the fabrication of metamaterials with tunable and highly anisotropic architectures.展开更多
基金The authors gratefully acknowledge the support of National Key Research and Development Program of China(2020YFE0204400)National Natural Science Foundation of China(Nos.52090030,52122301,51973191)+3 种基金Shanxi-Zheda Institute of New Materials and Chemical Engineering(2012SZ-FR004)Hundred Talents Program of Zhejiang University(188020*194231701/113)China Postdoctoral Science Foundation(2021M692772)supported by the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities(Nos.2021FZZX001-17).
文摘Eliminating topological defects to achieve monodomain liquid crystals is highly significant for the fundamental studies of soft matter and building long-range ordered materials.However,liquid crystals are metastable and sensitive to external stimuli,such as flow,confinement,and electromagnetic fields,which cause their intrinsic polycrystallinity and topological defects.Here,we achieve the monodomain liquid crystals of graphene oxide over 30 cm through boundary-free sheargraphy.The obtained monodomain liquid crystals exhibit large-area uniform alignment of sheets,which has the same optical polarized angle and intensity.The monodomain liquid crystals provide bidirectionally ordered skeletons,which can be applied as lightweight thermal management materials with bidirectionally high thermal and electrical conductivity.Furthermore,we extend the controllable topology of two-dimensional colloids by introducing singularities and disclinations in monodomain liquid crystals.Topological structures with defect strength from−2 to+2 were realized.This work provides a facile methodology to study the structural order of soft matter at a macroscopic level,facilitating the fabrication of metamaterials with tunable and highly anisotropic architectures.