Colloidal Liquid Crystals Confined to Synthetic Tactoids

Autor: Gârlea, Ioana C., Dammone, Oliver, Alvarado, José, Notenboom, Valerie, Jia, Yunfei, Koenderink, Gijsje H., Aarts, Dirk G. A. L., Lettinga, M. Paul, Mulder, Bela M.
Jazyk: angličtina
Rok vydání: 2019
Předmět:
Zdroj: Scientific Reports, Vol 9, Iss 1, Pp 1-11 (2019)
Scientific Reports, 9(1)
ISSN: 2045-2322
DOI: 10.1038/s41598-019-56729-9
Popis: When a liquid crystal forming particles are confined to a spatial volume with dimensions comparable to that of their own size, they face a complex trade-off between their global tendency to align and the local constraints imposed by the boundary conditions. This interplay may lead to a non-trivial orientational patterns that strongly depend on the geometry of the confining volume. This novel regime of liquid crystalline behavior can be probed with colloidal particles that are macro-aggregates of biomolecules. Here we study director fields of filamentous fd-viruses in quasi-2D lens-shaped chambers that mimic the shape of tactoids, the nematic droplets that form during isotropic-nematic phase separation. By varying the size and aspect ratio of the chambers we force these particles into confinements that vary from circular to extremely spindle-like shapes and observe the director field using fluorescence microscopy. In the resulting phase diagram, next to configurations predicted earlier for 3D tactoids, we find a number of novel configurations. Using Monte Carlo Simulations, we show that these novel states are metastable, yet long-lived. Their multiplicity can be explained by the co-existence of multiple dynamic relaxation pathways leading to the final stable states.
Databáze: OpenAIRE
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