Finding order in twos In nematic liquid crystals, the local orientation of the molecules hovers around an average direction. The orientational control bestows unusual optical properties. In theory, with the right sort of two-dimensional shape, it should be possible to create nematics with biaxial ordering, but this has proven elusive. Mundoor et al. dispersed colloidal rods into a nematic solvent (see the Perspective by Poulin). Within a range of temperature and concentration, the rods ordered orthogonally to the solvent molecules, thus giving the mixture the type of properties that one would expect from a biaxial liquid crystal. Science , this issue p. 768 ; see also p. 712

Differing from isotropic fluids, liquid crystals exhibit highly anisotropic interactions with surfaces, which define boundary conditions for the alignment of constituent rod-like molecules at interfaces with colloidal inclusions and confining substrates. We show that surface alignment of the nematic molecules can be controlled by harnessing the competing aligning effects of surface functionalization and electric field arising from surface charging and bulk counterions. The control of ionic content in the bulk and at surfaces allows for tuning orientations of shape-anisotropic particles like platelets within an aligned nematic host and for changing the orientation of director relative to confining substrates. The ensuing anisotropic elastic and electrostatic interactions enable colloidal crystals with reconfigurable symmetries and orientations of inclusions.

Improving building energy performance requires the development of new highly insulative materials. An affordable retrofitting solution comprising a thin film could improve the resistance to heat flow in both residential and commercial buildings and reduce overall energy consumption.Here we propose cellulose aerogel films formed from pellicles produced by the bacteria Gluconacetobacter hansenii as insulation materials. We studied the impact of density and nanostructure on the aerogels' thermal properties. Thermal conductivity as low as 13 mW/(K•m) was measured for native pellicle-based aerogels dried as-is with minimal post-treatment. The use of waste from the beer brewing industry as a solution to grow the pellicle maintained the cellulose yield obtained with standard Hestrin-Schramm medium, making our product more affordable and sustainable. In the future, our work can be extended through further diversification of the sources of substrate among food wastes, facilitating larger potential production and applications.

Self-assembly of colloidal particles is poised to become a powerful composite material fabrication technique, but remains challenged by a limited control over the ensuing structures. We develop a new breed of nematic colloids that are physical analogs of a mathematical surface with boundary, interacting with the molecular alignment field without inducing defects when flat. However, made from a thin nanofoil, they can be shaped to prompt formation of self-compensating defects that drive pre-programmed elastic interactions mediated by the nematic host. To show this, we wrap the nanofoil on all triangular side faces of a pyramid, except its square base. The ensuing pyramidal cones induce point defects with fractional hedgehog charges of opposite signs, spontaneously align with respect to the far-field director to form elastic dipoles and nested assemblies with tunable spacing. Nanofoils shaped into octahedrons interact as elastic quadrupoles. Our findings may drive realization of low-symmetry colloidal phases.Surface point defects, dubbed "boojums", arise in many condensed matter systems and often define their physical behavior [1][2][3][4][5][6][7]. For example, in nematic liquid crystal (LC) colloids and in confined LCs, topological characteristics of the particle-induced boojums are determined by the surface topology of colloidal inclusions [7,8]. Elastic interactions of particles in LCs, in turn, depend on these defects and their locations, ultimately leading to different forms of assembly [3][4][5][6][7][8][9]. By changing genus of colloidal particles, one can pre-determine the patterns, winding numbers, and hedgehog charges of induced surface defects [7,8]. However, surface genus is not the only means of controlling defects and self-assembly as even spherical particles can

We study the polarization dependent photon upconversion luminescence properties of a large-scale orientationally ordered soft matter system formed by colloidal nanorods dispersed in an isotropic solvent. The electrostatically charged photon-upconverting nanorods form an isotropic dispersion at low concentrations, whereas orientational order and a nematic phase emerge at high concentrations. When an alternating electric field is applied, particles align in the direction of the electric field in both nematic and isotropic phases, though the nature of this electric switching is different in these two phases. Owing to the long-range orientational order in the nematic phase, the upconversion luminescence from the particles is polarized without an external field. Polarization dependence of these properties can also be electrically induced in an isotropic phase of the colloidal nanorods. Further, we explore the dynamics of switching of photon upconversion luminescence in both nematic and isotropic dispersions and discuss their potential technological uses.