@article {C4TC00451E,
	title = {Evaluation of form birefringence in chiral nematic mesoporous materials},
	journal = {J. Mater. Chem. C},
	volume = {2},
	year = {2014},
	pages = {5093-5097},
	publisher = {The Royal Society of Chemistry},
	abstract = {We present a detailed investigation into the form birefringence of chiral nematic mesoporous materials templated by the self-assembly of cellulose nanocrystals as the potential basis to detect changes in refractive index in an optical sensor using circular dichroism (CD) spectroscopy. The behavior is in excellent agreement with a model of form birefringence in a chiral nematic structure. We characterize the variability introduced by the self-assembly of the biologically-derived cellulose nanocrystals{,} which can partially be accounted for through normalization to address reproducibility in thickness and helical pitch within each sample. As one potential application{,} we show that the refractive index performance of these materials is maintained in strongly absorbing solutions due to the chiral nature of the form birefringence.},
	doi = {10.1039/C4TC00451E},
	url = {http://dx.doi.org/10.1039/C4TC00451E},
	author = {Kelly, Joel A. and Manchee, C. P. Kyle and Cheng, Susan and Ahn, Jun Myun and Shopsowitz, Kevin E. and Hamad, Wadood Y. and MacLachlan, Mark J.}
}
