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Amardeep's Project Page - RISE summer 2003 |
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Intern: Amardeep Kaur, UCSB
Mentor: Christian Steinbeck
Faculty Supervisor: Brad Chmelka
Department: Chemical Engineering |
INVESTIGATING A NEW CHROMONIC LIQUID CRYSTAL
Chromonic liquid crystals are newly discovered family of liquid crystals.
They typically consist of planar aromatic molecules. Because many dyes and
drugs contain extended Ĉ systems, they may form chromonic liquid crystals. The
study of chromonic liquid crystals is therefore an important field of research,
as it will help in the better understanding of the behavior of many dyes and
drugs. In a Chromonic liquid crystal, molecules self-assemble into highly
ordered board like structures that can form different liquid crystal phases.
The first step in the characterization of liquid crystals is the determination
of the temperature and concentration phase diagram. In our research, we use
optical microscopy and deuterium nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) to investigate
the phase behavior of tetra(4-sulfonatophenyl)porphyrin (TPPS4) as a functions
of concentration, temperature and pH. In acidic solutions (pH < 2), TPPS4 was
found to form extended J-aggregates and liquid crystalline phases at
concentrations as low as 10mM.
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