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Polymer Classification: Crystallinity

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Unlike ionic or small covalent molecules, polymers do not form crystalline solids due to the diffusion limitations of their long-chain structures. However, polymers contain microscopic crystalline domains separated by amorphous domains.
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Synthesis and Characterization of Functionalized Metal-organic Frameworks

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Programmable Anisotropy: From Mesophase Order to Functional Architectures.

Jeremy Money¹, Seyed Mostafa Tabatabaei², Pattuwe A A L D Pattuwearachchi²

¹Department of Chemical Engineering, University of South Carolina, Columbia, South Carolina 29208 United States.

Chemical Reviews

|May 20, 2026

Summary

This summary is machine-generated.

Liquid crystals (LCs) offer a physics-based approach to nanofabrication, using soft blueprints to create programmable nanoscale order. This method leverages LC properties like elasticity and defects for precise material organization and advanced manufacturing.

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Synthesis and Characterization of Functionalized Metal-organic Frameworks

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Synthesis of Information-bearing Peptoids and their Sequence-directed Dynamic Covalent Self-assembly

Synthesis of Information-bearing Peptoids and their Sequence-directed Dynamic Covalent Self-assembly

Published on: February 6, 2020

Area of Science:

Materials Science
Physics
Nanotechnology

Background:

Structural hierarchy in biology enables emergent functions from self-assembly.
Liquid crystals (LCs) uniquely combine fluidity with long-range orientational order.
LCs provide a toolkit (director fields, elasticity, chirality, defects) for precise matter organization.

Purpose of the Study:

To formulate design rules for liquid crystal (LC) physics-based nanofabrication.
To translate equilibrium and far-from-equilibrium mesophase phenomena into manufacturing processes.
To highlight the potential of LC insights for revolutionizing scalable nanofabrication.

Main Methods:

Formulating LC-physics design rules.
Leveraging mesophase phenomena (equilibrium and far-from-equilibrium).
Analyzing the roles of elasticity, anchoring, defects, chirality, and curvature.

Main Results:

Elasticity and anchoring define length scales in LC assembly.
Defect networks serve as programmable sites for nucleation and growth.
Chirality and curvature encode photonic and transport properties.

Conclusions:

LC blueprints can be transduced into solids, preserving order for nanofabrication.
LC-based assembly spans diverse materials including polymers, colloids, and hybrids.
External fields and confinement offer a bioinspired frontier for nonequilibrium LC textures.