Liquid-crystalline blue phases exhibit exceptional properties for applications in the display and sensor industry. However, in single component systems, they are stable only for very narrow temperature range between the isotropic and the chiral nematic phase, a feature that severely hinders their applicability. Systematic high-resolution calorimetric studies reveal that blue phase III is effectively stabilized in a wide temperature range by mixing surface-functionalized nanoparticles with chiral liquid crystals. This effect is present for two liquid crystals, yielding a robust method to stabilize blue phases, especially blue phase III. Theoretical arguments show that the aggregation of nanoparticles at disclination lines is responsible for the observed effects.

The electrical conductivities of 1-alkyl-3-methylimidazolium tetrafluoroborate ionic liquids and of 1-hexyl-3-methylimidazolium ionic liquids with different anions were determined in the temperature range between 123 and 393K on the basis of dielectric measurements in the frequency range from 1to107Hz. Most of the ionic liquids form a glass and the conductivity values obey the Vogel-Fulcher-Tammann equation. The glass transition temperatures are increasing with increasing length of the alkyl chain. The fragility is weakly dependent on the alkyl chain length but is highly sensitive to the structure of the anion.

The phase transition behavior of the liquid crystal dimer $\alpha${},$\omega${}-bis(4,4$'${}-cyanobiphenyl)nonane (CBC9CB), which has been reported to exhibit a nematic-nematic phase transition, has been investigated by means of high-resolution adiabatic scanning calorimetry. This nematic-nematic phase transition is weakly first-order with a latent heat of 0.24\ifmmode\pm\else\textpm\fi{}0.01 kJ~kg$-${}1. Mixtures up to 40 wt~% with 4-pentyl-4$'${}-cyanobiphenyl (5CB) liquid crystals have also been investigated, which also show this nematic to nematic phase transition. The transition stays weakly first-order with a decreasing latent heat with increasing concentration of 5CB. For mixtures with more than 40 wt~% uniaxial nematic-unknown nematic phase transition was not observed.