@article {49712,
	title = {Vastly increased mesophase range due to superstructure formation from in situ prepared gold nanoparticles with liquid crystalline ligands: toward enhanced optoelectronic applications},
	journal = {ACS Applied Nano Materials},
	volume = {8},
	year = {2025},
	month = {MAY },
	pages = {10340-10350},
	type = {Article},
	abstract = {<p>
	Gold nanoparticle (Au NP)-liquid crystal (LC) composites have gained considerable interest in developing cutting-edge electro-optical materials. This study introduces an innovative synthetic approach that significantly augments the capabilities of Au NP-LC composites by utilizing an amine-functionalized LC as both a reducing and capping agent in the refined Brust-Schiffrin method. In its standard form, this method yields Au NP-LC composites with appealing features like improved clearing temperature. However, the optical characteristics do not display any additional features and resemble simple LC-ligand functionalized Au NP, attributed here to the surplus LC employed to obtain the dual capabilities of reduction and capping. Thus, it was gratifying to observe a dramatic enhancement in mesophase stability with the removal of just a few percentages of excess LC, which is attributed to a remarkable and unprecedented one-dimensional superstructure formation. Furthermore, the removal of surplus LC caused the composite to exhibit Fano-like resonance in the UV-vis spectrum, a noteworthy optical feature likely resulting from dynamic plasmonic interactions, including plasmon-polariton interactions and lattice plasmon modes. Thus, the simple yet robust protocol employed yields Au NP-LC composites with an ultrawide thermal range of the mesophase that paves the way for realizing next-generation electro-optic materials featuring enhanced performance and response.</p>
},
	keywords = {Fano-resonance, gold nanoparticles, liquid crystals, nanosoftcomposites, superstructure},
	doi = {10.1021/acsanm.5c00923},
	author = {Duggal, Muskan and Khatavi, Santosh and Yelamaggad, Channabasaveshwar V. and Shankar Rao, Doddamane Sreenivasamurthy and Krishna Prasad, Subbarao and Prasad, Bhagavatula L. V.}
}
