Antiferroelectric liquid crystals are materials in which up to five different phases appear within a relatively narrow temperature range. The article reports the discovery of antiferroelectric liquid crystals and discusses experimental methods and results which allow for recognition of different phase structure. In addition it gives an overview of theoretical understanding of these complex materials. Starting from phenomenologically described intermolecular interactions we are today able to understand how they influence the structure of phases and their stability.
COBISS.SI-ID: 23506727
Our understanding of the “long range” electrodynamic, electrostatic, and polar interactions which dominate the organization of small objects at separations beyond an interatomic bond length is reviewed. From this basic-forces perspective, a large number of systems are described from which one can learn about these organizing forces and how to modulate them. The many practical systems that harness these nanoscale forces are then surveyed. The survey reveals not only the promise of new devices and materials, but also the possibility of designing them more effectively.
COBISS.SI-ID: 2252388
We have performed measurements of electric current in pentacene organic thin film transistors in situ, during growth of pentacene layer. The source and the drain contacts were fabricated with varying thickness of Ti layer, followed by a thick Au layer. Our measurements confirm the hypothesis that only the first two molecular layers of pentacene are responsible for the transport of most of the electric current between the source and the drain. Consequently, several-nm thick Ti layer hinders charge carrier injection from source into the channel.
COBISS.SI-ID: 1317115
The study of interactions between ß2-glycoprotein I (ß2GPI) and phospholipid membranes is aimed at advancing the knowledge about autoimmune disease antiphospholipid syndrome. The influence of the interactions on budding of giant unilamellar vesicles was investigated. A combination of experimental observations and a simple theoretical model showed that buds occur due to ß2GPI binding to the outer membrane leaflet, that the number of buds increases according to the ß2GPI concentration and that there are at given ß2GPI concentration more buds on larger and/or more flaccid vesicles.
COBISS.SI-ID: 27503577
Maximum entropy production principle is applied for understanding chemotaxis itself and migrating bands of bacteria in a capillary tube. This differs from studies based on diffusion equations for concentrations of bacteria and attractants. Entropy production is calculated for a migrating band. It is found that its speed is a decreasing function of initial concentrations of sugars and oxygen. The experimentally found dependencies are fitted with power-law functions and the corresponding exponents lie within theoretically predicted intervals.
COBISS.SI-ID: 15681369