Publication Date:
2009-07-25
Description:
In the formation of chiral crystals, the tendency for twist in the orientation of neighboring molecules is incompatible with ordering into a lattice: Twist is expelled from planar layers at the expense of local strain. We report the ordered state of a neat material in which a local chiral structure is expressed as twisted layers, a state made possible by spatial limitation of layering to a periodic array of nanoscale filaments. Although made of achiral molecules, the layers in these filaments are twisted and rigorously homochiral--a broken symmetry. The precise structural definition achieved in filament self-assembly enables collective organization into arrays in which an additional broken symmetry--the appearance of macroscopic coherence of the filament twist--produces a liquid crystal phase of helically precessing layers.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Hough, L E -- Jung, H T -- Kruerke, D -- Heberling, M S -- Nakata, M -- Jones, C D -- Chen, D -- Link, D R -- Zasadzinski, J -- Heppke, G -- Rabe, J P -- Stocker, W -- Korblova, E -- Walba, D M -- Glaser, M A -- Clark, N A -- HL-51177/HL/NHLBI NIH HHS/ -- New York, N.Y. -- Science. 2009 Jul 24;325(5939):456-60. doi: 10.1126/science.1170027.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Author address: 〈/span〉Department of Physics and Liquid Crystal Materials Research Center, University of Colorado, Boulder, CO 80309, USA. hough@colorado.edu〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19628864" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉
Keywords:
Crystallization
;
Microscopy, Atomic Force
;
Microscopy, Electron, Transmission
;
Microscopy, Polarization
;
*Molecular Structure
;
*Nanostructures
;
X-Ray Diffraction
Print ISSN:
0036-8075
Electronic ISSN:
1095-9203
Topics:
Biology
,
Chemistry and Pharmacology
,
Computer Science
,
Medicine
,
Natural Sciences in General
,
Physics
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