Emulsions are ubiquitous in our daily life (e.g., milk, paint, cosmetics), but they are also central components of medicine, food, and performance materials. Among them, liquid crystal emulsions (LCEs) have emerged as a versatile platform for creating adaptive and multifunctional soft materials.
Our research focuses on dynamically reconfigurable complex LCEs, where both the morphology of the droplet (e.g., Janus, double, or core-shell structures) and the internal liquid crystal organization can be reversibly tuned through interfacial chemistry and surfactant balance. This dual reconfigurability provides a powerful route to design responsive materials that couple structure, order, and function across multiple length scales.
We aim to unlock the extraordinary potential of these systems by developing integrated devices and active materials for:
- Adaptive photonics and optics: dynamically tunable lenses and omnidirectional structural color coatings based on cholesteric LCEs
- Soft robotics and micromechanics: polymerized LCE microdroplets that act as reversible actuators, micropumps, or artificial muscles.
- Point-of-care biosensing and environmental sensing: exploiting the extreme interfacial sensitivity and topological defects of LCEs for rapid detection of pathogens, biomolecules, and persistent environmental pollutants.
- Complex colloidal architectures: integrating different nanostructured soft materials into multi-compartment emulsions to create programmable assemblies and active matter.
By combining organic and polymer synthesis, supramolecular design, interfacial chemistry, and microfluidic fabrication, we seek to transform LCEs into next-generation soft building blocks that bridge self-assembly, photonics, and life-inspired materials science.
Involved researchers: Alberto Concellón (
Key recent publications:
Adv. Mater. 2025, 37, 2506100. https://doi/10.1002/adma.202506100
Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2025, 137, e202421162. https://doi.org/10.1002/anie.202421162
Adv. Mater. Technol. 2025, e01236. https://doi.org/10.1002/admt.202501236
Liq. Cryst. 2024, https://doi.org/10.1080/02678292.2024.2325587
Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2023, 62, e2023088. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/anie.202308857
J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2021, 143, 9177-9182. https://pubs.acs.org/doi/full/10.1021/jacs.1c04115
ACS Cent. Sci. 2020, 6, 1460-1466. https://doi.org/10.1021/acscentsci.0c00686
J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2019, 141, 18246-18255. https://doi.org/10.1021/jacs.9b09216
