Prof. Randy Kamien and Penn collaborators Kate Stebe and Shu Yang in SEAS developed a technique for controlling liquid crystals by means of physical templates and elastic energy, rather than the electromagnetic fields that manipulate them in televisions and computer monitors. They envision using this technique to direct the assembly of other materials, such as nanoparticles. Their work was published in the Proceedings of the National Academies of Science and is summarized on the Penn news site here.
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