We report the synthesis of oligophenylene polycatenar liquid crystals incorporating 1,4‐disubstituted phenyl rings joined by a direct carbon carbon bond and some pyrimidine analogues. The nature of the linkages does appear to affect the mesomorphism significantly. The ratio of the aromatic core to the aliphatic chains is varied systematically by changing the number of 1,4‐disubstituted phenyl rings and the length of the aliphatic chains. This strongly influences the transition temperatures of the mesophases. Some of the compounds are columnar over an extended temperature range of more than 200°C with melting points below room temperature. We suggest that a combination of the poor overlap of the conjugated electron system of the molecular cores making up the columnar structure and the high concentration of aliphatic chains leads to a low charge‐carrier mobility.

A simple, environmentally friendly and cost-effective synthetic method has been developed to prepare highly stable aqueous colloidal solutions of small (2–14 nm) silver nanoparticles using aminocellulose (AMC) as a combined reducing and capping reagent. The effects of temperature, reaction time, the concentration of silver nitrate and AMC are systematically investigated and the reaction conditions optimised. The AMC-stabilized silver nanoparticles can be deposited on the surfaces of cotton fibres and microporous cellulose acetate (CA) filters, without affecting the permeability of the filters. The AMC-stabilized aqueous silver colloidal solutions and silver nanoparticle coated CA filters and cotton fibres all show significant antibacterial action against all the bacterial isolates tested, with the antibacterial levels between “Sufficient” and “Good”, although some of solutions have been stored at room temperature for 18 months.

In order to inhibit the photocatalytic degradation of organic material supports induced by small titania (TiO2) nanoparticles, highly photocatalytically active, commercially available P25-TiO2 nanoparticles were first modified with a thin layer of (3-aminopropyl)triethoxysilane (APTES), which were then deposited and fixed onto the surface of paper samples via a simple, dip-coating process in water at room temperature. The resultant APTES-modified P25 TiO2 nanoparticle-coated paper samples exhibit much greater stability to UV-illumination than uncoated blank reference paper. Very little, or no, photo-degradation in terms of brightness and whiteness, respectively, of the P25-TiO2-nanoparticle-treated paper is observed. There are many other potential applications for this Green Chemistry approach to protect cellulosic fibres from UV-bleaching in sunlight and to protect their whiteness and maintain their brightness.

Optical control of memristors opens the route to new applications in optoelectronic switching and neuromorphic computing. Motivated by the need for reversible and latched optical switching we report on the development of a memristor with electronic properties tunable and switchable by wavelength and polarization specific light. The device consists of an optically active azobenzene polymer, poly(disperse red 1 acrylate), overlaying a forest of vertically aligned ZnO nanorods. Illumination induces trans–cis isomerization of the azobenzene molecules, which expands or contracts the polymer layer and alters the resistance of the off/on states, their ratio and retention time. The reversible optical effect enables dynamic control of a memristor's learning properties including control of synaptic potentiation and depression, optical switching between short-term and long-term memory and optical modulation of the synaptic efficacy via spike timing dependent plasticity. The work opens the route to the dynamic patterning of memristor networks both spatially and temporally by light, thus allowing the development of new optically reconfigurable neural networks and adaptive electronic circuits.

A large number of new liquid crystals incorporating the 2,5-disubstituted thiophene ring have been prepared and their mesomorphic behaviour studied in order to systematically investigate the correlation between the molecular structure and mesomorphism of thiophene derivatives with different shapes, polarisability and polarity. As a consequence of these investigations we have prepared a new class of liquid crystals incorporating a 2,5-disubstituted thiophene ring and a conjugated trans-carbon–carbon double bond in the terminal chain. These novel thiophene derivatives are the first liquid crystals incorporating a 2,5-disubstituted thiophene ring to exhibit a nematic phase at room temperature. This enables the flexoelectric coefficients of a bent-shaped molecule to be measured directly and at room temperature for the first time to the authors' knowledge. Many of these new thiophenes exhibit a high birefringence and a high nematic clearing point and are of potential use as components of nematic mixtures in LCDs.