Symposium NM08-Graphene Oxide Liquid Crystals and 2D Soft Material Systems

Ground breaking discovery of graphene has changed our perception towards the real-world existence of two-dimensional (2D) material systems. Presently, chemically converted form of graphene or graphene oxide (GO) is the key source of solvent processible graphene based materials. In particular, recent discovery of colloidal liquid crystallinity in aqueous GO dispersion is receiving unprecedented attention as a promising precursor for the graphene based high performance functional materials. Graphene oxide liquid crystal (GOLC) is unique compared to conventional LC systems due to their extremely large aspect ratio in shape anisotropy and its discovery has offered a new dimension to soft matter science as well as graphene research community.

Streamlined research efforts for GOLC have attained magnetic or electric field induced switching of molecular orientation and realized prototype GO-LCDs (liquid crystal displays). Self-alignment being the central attraction, GOLCs demonstrate practical importance for the fabrication of a wide variety of macroscopic functional structures by means of spinning, printing or coating. The inherent spontaneous ordering of GOLCs has been successfully employed for the processing of fibers, aerogels, films, textiles and many others. Such functional graphene based materials have been frequently utilized for energy storage and conversion, yet many other possibilities directly or in the form of hybrids or composites with other low-dimensional materials are anticipated in nanoelectronics, optoelectronics, environmental technology, catalysis, etc. In the aspects of fundamental research, moreover, versatile materials science based on GOLC triggered a great deal of research attention towards other 2D based soft material systems, such as colloids, surfactants, and membrane.

Considering the intense growth of research interest in the soft matter systems based on graphene or other 2D materials over the wide research fields of materials science and nanotechnology, it is very timely to host a session focussed on GOLCs and other 2D based soft matter systems that will cover the state-of-the art research in the relevant fields.

Topics will include:

Synthesis of graphene or other 2D based soft material systems
Fundamental and application studies on graphene and 2D based liquid crystal systems
2D material based colloids, surfactants, membrane
Nanocomposites, fibers, films, membranes, aerogels based on graphene and other 2D materials
Energy storage/conversion and other application studies of 2D based soft materials
1D, 2D, and 3D assembly of graphene, carbon nanotubes and other nanomaterials
Hybrids of graphene/2D materials with soft materials

Invited Speakers:

Jie Lian (Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, USA)
Manish Chhowalla (University of Cambridge, United Kingdom)
James Elliott (Cambridge University, United Kingdom)
Chao Gao (Zhejiang University, China)
Shinya Hayami (Kumamoto University, Japan)
Hee-Tae Jung (Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, Republic of Korea)
So Youn Kim (Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology, Republic of Korea)
Sandeep Kumar (Raman Research Institute, India)
Jiayan Luo (Tianjin University, China)
Mainak Majumder (Monash University, Australia)
Matteo Pasquali (Rice University, USA)
Philippe Poulin (Bordeaux University, France)
Joselito Razal (Deakin University, Australia)
Rodney Ruoff (Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology, Republic of Korea)
Milo Shaffer (Imperial College London, United Kingdom)
Gaoquan Shi (Tsinghua University, China)
Jang Kun Song (Sungkyunkwan University, Republic of Korea)
James Tour (Rice University, USA)
Gordon Wallace (Wollongong University, Australia)
Yi Xie (University of Science and Technology of China, China)
Yanfeng Zhang (Peking University, China)
Shuyun Zhou (Tsinghua University, China)