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We developed flexible and eco-friendly composite films, prepared by vacuum filtration or solvent casting method from the native or carboxylated cellulose nanofibrils and high electrically and thermally conductive 2D titanium carbide (Ti3C2Tx) MXenes. The electrostatic repulsion and hydrogen bonding between the hydrophilic surface/terminal groups on cellulose and MXene was shown to render their self-assembly distribution and organization into morphologically differently structured films with, consequently, different functional properties. A strong enhancement (for an order of magnitude) of the dielectric permittivity on increasing MXene content demonstrates the potential of developed material for applications in flexible dielectric and piezoelectric devices.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1063/5.0232250

This year’s recipient of the highest award in the field of physics, the Blinc Lifetime Award, is our colleague, prof. Igor Muševič. Igor is the head of the liquid crystal physics laboratory, and he also very successfully led our department for 16 years. He won the award for outstanding research achievements in the field of liquid crystal physics, creating new areas of research and mentoring top researchers. Igor is the author of many breakthrough discoveries published in the most prestigious journals, the author of two high-profile monographs, the PI of many projects, including the ongoing ERC project LOGOS, and an excellent and respected lecturer at international conferences and at the University of Ljubljana. Congratulations!

Our coworker Anna Razumnaya, in collaboration with the Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin für Materialien und Energie (Germany), the University of Picardie Jules Verne (France), and the CEMES-CNRS and Université de Toulouse (France), reported Switchable Topological Polar States in Epitaxial

BaTiO3 Nanoislands on Silicon in Nature Communications.

This study presents the creation of epitaxial BaTiO3 nanoislands on silicon, featuring chiral topological polar textures. These structures demonstrate unique center-type polarization domains that can be reversibly switched under an electric field. Insights into their 3D polarization patterns were achieved through piezoresponse force microscopy and phase-field modeling. The findings highlight a promising approach for integrating functional ferroelectric nanostructures into silicon-based platforms for next-generation nanoelectronic devices.

DOI: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-024-54285-z

We investigated two ionic liquid crystals by means of optical microscopy, X-ray, and fast field-cycling NMR relaxometry. The LC solutions were found to form foams, which produce some beautiful images.

These inspired the cover image of the journal issue. Link to the Article: https://pubs.acs.org/doi/full/10.1021/acs.langmuir.4c02059

Colleagues from Condensed Matter Physics Department, Marta Lavrič, George Cordoyiannis in Nikola Novak, in collaboration with groups from University of Ljubljana (L. Bar, A. Iglič) and Université Libre de Bruxelles Bruslju (M. E. Villanueva, P. Losada-Pérez), have published an article in the journal Sensors, entitled “Quality assessment of solvent-assisted lipid bilayers in different phases and aqueous buffer media: A QCM-D study” (https://doi.org/10.3390/s24186093). By means of quartz microbalance with dissipation monitoring (QCM-D), they have measured the adsorbed lipid mass in real-time, through changes in frequency and dissipation. They have demonstrated how different experimental parameters (aqueous buffers, and adsorption at temperatures corresponding to the fluid or gel phases) affect the quality of supported lipid bilayers, formed by the solvent-exchange method on Au and SiO2 surfaces. This time-efficient method for forming supported lipid bilayers is recently receiving increasing attention among scientists. However, its dependence on different experimental conditions is not yet fully understood.