What is it about?
Martensitic transformations are rapid, cooperative, and reversible transformations primarily studied in metals like steel. We show that a liquid crystal, a soft organic material, can transform to a crystal through a Martensitic-like route. In such a transition, memory of structure is preserved through a phase transition.
Featured Image
Photo by Giovanni Crisalfi on Unsplash
Why is it important?
Liquid crystals, being fluid can be aligned over large distances. Our work shows how order created in the liquid crystal phase can be transferred to the crystal state. Large area alignment of crystals can lead to better organic electronic devices, which unlike conventional silicon-based electronics, can be flexible and much more cost-effective.
Perspectives
The work demonstrates how phase transitions in very different materials can occur through similar pathways. Metallurgy holds lot of insights that can be transferred to manipulate transformation pathways and discover new phases in soft matter. Soft and hard matter may look and feel very different at the surface but there are unifying similarities that emerge when one probes deeper.
Kushal Bagchi
Rice University
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Martensitic-like transition between liquid crystalline and crystalline phases of a prototypical discotic organic semiconductor, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, September 2026, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences,
DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2612044123.
You can read the full text:
Contributors
The following have contributed to this page
