The Liquid Crystals and Advanced Organic Research Group at the University of Hull has a very long and impressive record of research in the area of self-assembling organic materials and systems, stretching back over a period of almost sixty years.   

        Research in the field of Liquid Crystals was initiated at Hull by Sir Brynmor Jones in the 1930s and, when Sir Brynmor became Head of the Department of Chemistry, the responsibility for directing research on self-organising systems passed to Professor George Gray FRS CBE. The early period of research at Hull proved to be of an academic nature, and the subject still remained unfashionable in the scientific community.  In 1972 this all changed with the invention of the Twisted Nematic Liquid Crystal Display (TNLCD).  Although this electrooptic shutter was a breakthrough for applications requiring low voltage, passive displays, it was impractical because of the lack of photochemically and chemically stable nematic materials that existed in the liquid-crystalline state at room temperature. 

        Working with the support of the Ministry of Defence in 1973, George Gray and Ken Harrison overcame this problem via the development of cyano-biphenyl liquid crystals, which were found to possess stable nematic phases at, or close to, room temperature.  These materials were an immediate success in the electronics industry and consumer products (eg, watches and calculators) containing small area liquid crystal displays flooded the marketplace.  The acronym LCD became ubiquitous and synonymous with portable, low power-consumption devices, which for the most part contained Hull Materials. 

        For this work, The University of Hull, along with the Ministry of Defence (RSRE) and BDH Chemical Co won The Queen's Award for Technological Achievement in 1979.  Subsequently, the team, including George Gray and Ken Harrison, won the Rank Prize for developments in electrooptic devices.  George Gray, who remains an Emeritus Professor at Hull, went on to be awarded the Fellowship of The Royal Society of Chemistry (FRS), the Fellowship of The Royal Society of Edinburgh (FRSE), to be honoured by the Queen through the award of the CBE and to become the Kyoto Laureate of 1995.

        After the commercial development of small area liquid crystal devices came the exploitation of the technology in large area flat panel displays for computer and television applications.  The Research Group at Hull has, again, been in the forefront of this research through the development of nematic materials for multiplexed displays and fluoro-substituted materials for TFT activated TN displays.  Our recent work on display materials resulted in the development of low viscosity smectic C hosts and high polarisation dopants for surface stabilised ferroelectric light-valves (SSFLCDs).  These materials switch in the microsecond time regime (a thousand times faster than conventional nematic materials) and are therefore of practical interest in displays that work at video-frame rates, with particular interest to small and very large area applications.

        In addition, these materials are of use in electroclinic devices that can operate with grey scale.  With the invention of IC chips, liquid crystal switches on silicon (LCOS) devices are being commercialised for use in microdisplays for projectors and mobile telephones, and as switches in optical networks.  The speed of operation of ferroelectric liquid crystals makes them ideally suited for such applications.  The team at Hull has taken advantage of these technological breakthroughs by creating a start-up company -Kingston Chemicals- which will provide a source of research and commercial materials.

        Research at Hull has not been limited to materials just for electrooptic devices, the development of chiral liquid crystals has led to the generation of materials, suitable for encapsulated thermochromic and electrochromic applications.  For example, low cost thermometers, battery testers, etc have resulted from this fundamental work.

        In recent years the Group has devoted much research to polymer and elastomer variants of low molar mass liquid crystals.  Nematic polymers have been developed for optical storage device applications, for which the Group won a European Union BRITE award for its research, and ferroelectric polymers for pyroelectric sensors and plastic read-write storage displays.  Ongoing research in polymers has extended to the invention and development of new UV curable coatings and adhesives, phantom patients for medical imaging, and dendritic materials including dendritic liquid crystal polymers.

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