Credits

Polymers & Liquid Crystals (PLC) is a pilot program produced by a cooperative effort between the Department of Physics and the Department of Macromolecular Science and Engineering at Case Western Reserve University in conjunction with the Center for Advanced Liquid Crystalline Optical Materials (ALCOM) at Kent State University. A part of the ALCOM educational outreach program,this tutorial provides a basic introduction at the college freshman level to the fields of polymers, liquid crystals (LC), polymer LC, and LC displays. It is intended to demonstrate the advantages and capabilities of the Hypertext medium as an educational tool.

The Polymers & Liquid Crystals (PLC) project is the evolution of The Electronic Polymer Liquid Crystal Tutorial. The Electronic Tutorial was initially created during the summers of 1994 and 1995 by undergraduate students at CWRU with the guidance of Professors Koenig and Gordon and of Dr. Cramer. This tutorial featured a "virtual textbook" and related simulations, intended for study of basic polymer and liquid crystal science. As World Wide Web (WWW) technology evolved, the tutorial's scope and multimedia content experienced exponential growth, beyond its original expectations. Eventually the Electronic Tutorial became the PLC project, a multimedia study and teaching tool available on the WWW and CDROM. Today, PLC covers a wide variety of polymer and liquid crystal science and device topics including some aspects of current research in these fields.


Polymers and Liquid Crystals Team (Summer 2004)

Tom Boatwright - simulations, graphics, text, and site interface

Polymers and Liquid Crystals Team (Summer 2002 and 2003)

Matthew Finnerty - simulations, movies, graphics, and text

Polymers and Liquid Crystals Team (Summer 2001)

Andrey Utis - simulations, movies, graphics, and text

Polymers and Liquid Crystals Team (Summer 2000)

Steven Israel - simulations, movies, graphics, and text
Polymers and Liquid Crystals Team (Summer 99)
Ron Lazebnik -simulations, movies, graphics, and text
Kimberly Charlton - movies, graphics, and text
Mike Curtiss - simulations, graphics, and text
PLC Version 2.0 Team (Summer 97 & 98)
Roee Lazebnik - CDROM design, core software, interface, simulations, movies, graphics, and text
Ron Lazebnik - Virtual Laboratory simulations and CDROM software engine
Robert Ondris - graphics and text
William Weng - movies, graphics, and text
Genevieve Mathieson - movies, graphics, and text
Carl Rustic - simulations
PLC Version 1.0 Team (Summer 96)
John Graff - CDROM software engine, movies, graphics, and text
Roee Lazebnik - CDROM design, movies, graphics, and text
Matthew Banning - movies, graphics, and text
David Tobias - movies, graphics, and text
The Electronic Polymer Liquid Crystal Tutorial team (Summer 95)
John Graff - graphics, and text
Roee Lazebnik - programming, graphics, and text
Matthew Banning - programming, graphics, and text
Benjamin Ruedlinger - programming, graphics, and text
Cheryl Wozniak - programming, graphics, and text
The Electronic Polymer Liquid Crystal Tutorial team (Summer 94)
John W. Graff - programming, graphics, and text
Dave Coleman - programming, graphics, and text
Denver Dash - animations and text
Shannon M. Lynch - graphics, movies, and text
Special thanks to the following individuals for their help
Andrew Harey - technical and programming support
Lydia Horvath - Tech support on movies
The following CWRU faculty are among those who contributed to this project:
William L. Gordon - Department of Physics
Jack L. Koenig - Department of Macromolecular Science and Engineering
Peter G. Cramer - formerly of the Department of Physics

Bibliography

Billmeyer, Fred W. (1984) Textbook of Polymer Science. (John Wiley & Sons, New York)

Buka, Agnes. (1993) Modern Topics in Liquid Crystals. (World Scientific Publishing Company, New York)

Chandrasekhar, S. (1992) Liquid Crystals. 2nd ed.(Cambridge University Press, London)

Collings, Peter J. (1990) Liquid Crystals: Nature's Delicate Phase of Matter. (Princeton University Press, Princeton, New Jersey)

Collings, Peter J. and M. Hird. (1997) Introduction to Liquid Crystals Chemistry and Physics. (Taylor and Francis, London)

Crawford, G. P. and S. Zumer. (eds) (1996) Liquid Crystals in Complex Geometries. (Taylor and Francis, London)

Demus, D. and L. Richter. (1978) Textures of Liquid Crystals. (VEB Deutcher Verlag fur Grundstoffindustrie, Leipzig)

Dierking, I., L. L. Kosbar, A. Alzali-Andakani, A. C. Lowe, and G. A. Held. (1997) Journal of Applied Physics. 81, 3007.

Donald, A. M. and A. H. Windle. (1992) Liquid Crystalline Polymers. (Cambridge University Press, London)

Ferry, J. D. (1980) Viscoelastic Properties of Polymers. 3rd ed. (John Wiley & Sons, New York)

Flory, Paul J. (1988) Statistical Mechanics of Chain Molecules. (Hanser Publishers, New York)

Hecht, E. and A. Zajac. (1974) Optics. (Addison-Wesley Company, Reading, MA)

Huang, X. Y., J. W. Doane, and D. K. Yang. (1997) Journal of the Society for Information Display. 5, 179.

Jenkins, Francis A. and Harvey E. White. (1976) Fundamentals of Optics. (McGraw Hill Inc., New York)

Kim, Y., J. Francl, B. Taheri, and J. L. West. (1998) Applied Physics Letters. 72, 2253.

Koenig, Jack L. (1980) Chemical Microstructure of Polymer Chains. (John Wiley & Sons, New York)

Morrison, Robert T. and Robert N. Boyd. (1987) Organic Chemistry. (Allyn & Bacon, Boston)

Munk, P. (1989) Introduction to Macromolecular Science. (Wiley-Interscience, New York)

Rajaram, C. V., S. D. Hudson, and L. C. Chien. (1996) Chemical Materials. 8, 2451.

Seymour, Raymond B. and Charles E. Carraher. (1990) Giant Molecules. (John Wiley & Sons, New York)

Sperling, L. H. (1986) Physical Polymer Science. (John Wiley & Sons, New York)


Sources of Special Photos and Movies

Geon Corporation
-Photos and movie in Polymer Morphology and Thermal Properties of Polymers Sections (Dr. Charles Daniels)

Merck Companies
-Photos in Birefringence in Liquid Crystals Section and in Phase Changes in Liquid Crystals Simulation (Dr. Frank Allan)

Professor Steven Hudson, Macromolecular Science Department, CWRU
-Photos in the Polymer Stabilized Nematic Liquid Crystal Section
-Photos and diagram in the Liquid Crystal Textures and Defects Section

Dr. Mary Neubert, LCI-KSU
-Photos and movies in the Liquid Crystals Sections and in Phase Changes in Liquid Crystals Simulation

Professor Charles Rosenblatt, Physics Department, CWRU
-Differential scanning calorimetry plots in Liquid Crystal Phases Section

R. Bhargava, Macromolecular Science Department, CWRU
-Photos and spectra in Polymer Dispersed Liquid Crystal Section

S. R. Challa, Macromolecular Science Department, CWRU
-Photos and assistance in Polymer Dispersed Liquid Crystal Section


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