TY - JOUR A1 - Feldmann, David A1 - Maduar, Salim R. A1 - Santer, Mark A1 - Lomadze, Nino A1 - Vinogradova, Olga I. A1 - Santer, Svetlana T1 - Manipulation of small particles at solid liquid interface BT - light driven diffusioosmosis JF - Scientific reports N2 - 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. KW - genomic DNA conformation KW - photosensitive surfactants KW - optical manipulation KW - photocontrol KW - azobenzene KW - films KW - gradients KW - transport KW - tracking KW - brushes Y1 - 2016 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1038/srep36443 SN - 2045-2322 VL - 6 PB - Nature Publishing Group CY - London ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Ryabchun, Alexander A1 - Raguzin, Ivan A1 - Stumpe, Joachim A1 - Shibaev, Valery A1 - Bobrovsky, Alexey T1 - Cholesteric Polymer Scaffolds Filled with Azobenzene-Containing Nematic Mixture with Phototunable Optical Properties JF - Scientific reports N2 - 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. KW - liquid crystalline polymer KW - azobenzene KW - cholesteric phase KW - phototunable optical properties KW - selective light reflection KW - LC composites Y1 - 2016 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1021/acsami.6b09642 SN - 1944-8244 VL - 8 SP - 27227 EP - 27235 PB - American Chemical Society CY - Washington ER -