@article{FeldmannMaduarSanteretal.2016, author = {Feldmann, David and Maduar, Salim R. and Santer, Mark and Lomadze, Nino and Vinogradova, Olga I. and Santer, Svetlana}, title = {Manipulation of small particles at solid liquid interface}, series = {Scientific reports}, volume = {6}, journal = {Scientific reports}, publisher = {Nature Publishing Group}, address = {London}, issn = {2045-2322}, doi = {10.1038/srep36443}, pages = {10}, year = {2016}, abstract = {The strong adhesion of sub-micron sized particles to surfaces is a nuisance, both for removing contaminating colloids from surfaces and for conscious manipulation of particles to create and test novel micro/nano-scale assemblies. The obvious idea of using detergents to ease these processes suffers from a lack of control: the action of any conventional surface-modifying agent is immediate and global. With photosensitive azobenzene containing surfactants we overcome these limitations. Such photo-soaps contain optical switches (azobenzene molecules), which upon illumination with light of appropriate wavelength undergo reversible trans-cis photo-isomerization resulting in a subsequent change of the physico-chemical molecular properties. In this work we show that when a spatial gradient in the composition of trans- and cis- isomers is created near a solid-liquid interface, a substantial hydrodynamic flow can be initiated, the spatial extent of which can be set, e.g., by the shape of a laser spot. We propose the concept of light induced diffusioosmosis driving the flow, which can remove, gather or pattern a particle assembly at a solid-liquid interface. In other words, in addition to providing a soap we implement selectivity: particles are mobilized and moved at the time of illumination, and only across the illuminated area.}, language = {en} } @article{RyabchunRaguzinStumpeetal.2016, author = {Ryabchun, Alexander and Raguzin, Ivan and Stumpe, Joachim and Shibaev, Valery and Bobrovsky, Alexey}, title = {Cholesteric Polymer Scaffolds Filled with Azobenzene-Containing Nematic Mixture with Phototunable Optical Properties}, series = {Scientific reports}, volume = {8}, journal = {Scientific reports}, publisher = {American Chemical Society}, address = {Washington}, issn = {1944-8244}, doi = {10.1021/acsami.6b09642}, pages = {27227 -- 27235}, year = {2016}, abstract = {The past two decades witnessed tremendous progress in the field of creation of different types of responsive materials. Cholesteric polymer networks present a very promising class of smart materials due to the combination of the unique optical properties of cholesteric mesophase and high mechanical properties of polymer networks. In the present work we demonstrate the possibility of fast and reversible photocontrol of the optical properties of cholesteric polymer networks. Several cholesteric photopolymerizable mixtures are prepared, and porous cholesteric network films with different helix pitches are produced by polymerization of these mixtures. An effective and simple method of the introduction of photochromic azobenzene-containing nematic mixture capable of isothermal photoinducing the nematic isotropic phase transition into the porous polymer matrix is developed, It is found that cross-linking density and degree of polymer network filling with a photochromic nematic mixture strongly influence the photo-optical behavior of the obtained composite films. In particular, the densely cross-linked films are characterized by a decrease in selective light reflection bandwidth, whereas weakly cross-linked systems display two processes: the shift of selective light reflection peak and decrease of its width. It is noteworthy that the obtained cholesteric materials are shown to be very promising for the variety applications in optoelectronics and photonics.}, language = {en} }