Spherical nematic shells with a prolate ellipsoidal core

Sadati, Monirosadat; Zhou, Ye; Melchert, Drew; Guo, Ashley; Martinez-Gonzalez, Jose A.; Roberts, Tyler F.; Zhang, Rui; de Pablo, Juan J.

doi:10.1039/c7sm01403a

Spherical nematic shells with a prolate ellipsoidal core

Journal Article · Thu Sep 21 00:00:00 EDT 2017 · Soft Matter

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1039/c7sm01403a· OSTI ID:1498502

Sadati, Monirosadat ^[1]; ^[2]; Melchert, Drew ^[2]; Guo, Ashley ^[2]; ^[1]; Roberts, Tyler F. ^[2]; Zhang, Rui ^[2]; ^[1]

Univ. of Chicago, IL (United States); Argonne National Lab. (ANL), Argonne, IL (United States)
Univ. of Chicago, IL (United States)

We report that liquid crystal shells have attracted considerable attention in recent years. In such systems, a combination of confinement and curvature generates topological defect structures that do not exist in the bulk. Past studies, however, have largely focused on perfectly spherical shells, and little attention has been devoted to the impact of core geometry on the configuration and arrangement of topological defects. In this work, a microfluidic glass capillary device is used to encapsulate spherical and prolate ellipsoidal particles in nematic liquid crystal (LC) droplets dispersed in aqueous media. Our experimental studies show that, when trapped inside a radial LC droplet, spherical particles with both homeotropic and planar anchoring are highly localized at the droplet's center. While the radial configuration of the LC droplets is not altered by a homeotropic particle, polystyrene particles with strong planar anchoring disturb the radial ordering, leading to a twisted structure. Experiments indicate that off-center particle positions can also arise, in which defects are displaced towards the vicinity of the droplet's surface. In contrast, when prolate ellipsoidal particles are encapsulated in a thick radial LC shell, the minimum free energy corresponds to configurations where the particle is positioned at the droplet center. Lastly, in this case, defects arise at the two ends of the prolate ellipsoid, where the curvature of the particle is maximal, leading to the formation of peculiar hybrid and twisted structures.

View Accepted Manuscript (DOE)

Research Organization:: Argonne National Laboratory (ANL), Argonne, IL (United States)

Sponsoring Organization:: USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES) (SC-22). Materials Sciences & Engineering Division; U.S. Army Research Laboratory - U.S. Army Research Office (ARO); National Science Foundation (NSF)

Grant/Contract Number:: AC02-06CH11357

OSTI ID:: 1498502

Journal Information:: Soft Matter, Journal Name: Soft Matter Journal Issue: 41 Vol. 13; ISSN SMOABF; ISSN 1744-683X

Publisher:: Royal Society of ChemistryCopyright Statement

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

References (45)

Liquid Crystal Enabled Early Stage Detection of Beta Amyloid Formation on Lipid Monolayers Sadati, Monirosadat; Apik, Aslin Izmitli; Armas-Perez, Julio C. Advanced Functional Materials, Vol. 25, Issue 38 https://doi.org/10.1002/adfm.201502830	journal	September 2015
Structural Color Palettes of Core-Shell Photonic Ink Capsules Containing Cholesteric Liquid Crystals Lee, Sang Seok; Seo, Hyeon Jin; Kim, Yun Ho Advanced Materials, Vol. 29, Issue 23 https://doi.org/10.1002/adma.201606894	journal	April 2017
Reconfigurable Photonic Capsules Containing Cholesteric Liquid Crystals with Planar Alignment Lee, Sang Seok; Kim, Su Kyung; Won, Jong Chan Angewandte Chemie International Edition, Vol. 54, Issue 50 https://doi.org/10.1002/anie.201507723	journal	September 2015
Preparation of monodisperse ellipsoidal polystyrene particles Ho, C. C.; Keller, A.; Odell, J. A. Colloid & Polymer Science, Vol. 271, Issue 5 https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00657391	journal	May 1993
Drops and shells of liquid crystal Lopez-Leon, Teresa; Fernandez-Nieves, Alberto Colloid and Polymer Science, Vol. 289, Issue 4 https://doi.org/10.1007/s00396-010-2367-7	journal	January 2011
Analysis of the Internal Configurations of Droplets of Liquid Crystal Using Flow Cytometry Miller, Daniel S.; Wang, Xiaoguang; Buchen, James Analytical Chemistry, Vol. 85, Issue 21 https://doi.org/10.1021/ac4021193	journal	October 2013
Understanding Atomic-Scale Behavior of Liquid Crystals at Aqueous Interfaces Ramezani-Dakhel, Hadi; Sadati, Monirosadat; Rahimi, Mohammad Journal of Chemical Theory and Computation, Vol. 13, Issue 1 https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.jctc.6b00844	journal	December 2016
Molecular Structure of Canonical Liquid Crystal Interfaces Sadati, Monirosadat; Ramezani-Dakhel, Hadi; Bu, Wei Journal of the American Chemical Society, Vol. 139, Issue 10 https://doi.org/10.1021/jacs.7b00167	journal	March 2017
Toward a Tetravalent Chemistry of Colloids Nelson, David R. Nano Letters, Vol. 2, Issue 10 https://doi.org/10.1021/nl0202096	journal	October 2002
Segregation of liquid crystal mixtures in topological defects Rahimi, Mohammad; Ramezani-Dakhel, Hadi; Zhang, Rui Nature Communications, Vol. 8, Issue 1 https://doi.org/10.1038/ncomms15064	journal	April 2017
Topological defects in liquid crystals as templates for molecular self-assembly Wang, Xiaoguang; Miller, Daniel S.; Bukusoglu, Emre Nature Materials, Vol. 15, Issue 1 https://doi.org/10.1038/nmat4421	journal	September 2015
Frustrated nematic order in spherical geometries Lopez-Leon, T.; Koning, V.; Devaiah, K. B. S. Nature Physics, Vol. 7, Issue 5 https://doi.org/10.1038/nphys1920	journal	February 2011
High-fidelity spherical cholesteric liquid crystal Bragg reflectors generating unclonable patterns for secure authentication Geng, Yong; Noh, JungHyun; Drevensek-Olenik, Irena Scientific Reports, Vol. 6, Issue 1 https://doi.org/10.1038/srep26840	journal	May 2016
Defects and ordering in nematic coatings on uniaxial and biaxial colloids Bates, Martin A.; Skačej, Gregor; Zannoni, Claudio Soft Matter, Vol. 6, Issue 3 https://doi.org/10.1039/B917180K	journal	January 2010
Curvature control of valence on nematic shells Kralj, Samo; Rosso, Riccardo; Virga, Epifanio G. Soft Matter, Vol. 7, Issue 2 https://doi.org/10.1039/C0SM00378F	journal	January 2011
Behavior of colloidal particles at a nematic liquid crystal interface ^† Gharbi, Mohamed Amine; Nobili, Maurizio; In, Martin Soft Matter, Vol. 7, Issue 4 https://doi.org/10.1039/C0SM00863J	journal	January 2011
Organized assemblies of colloids formed at the poles of micrometer-sized droplets of liquid crystal Wang, Xiaoguang; Miller, Daniel S.; de Pablo, Juan J. Soft Matter, Vol. 10, Issue 44 https://doi.org/10.1039/C4SM01784F	journal	January 2014
Shape-controlled orientation and assembly of colloids with sharp edges in nematic liquid crystals Beller, Daniel A.; Gharbi, Mohamed A.; Liu, Iris B. Soft Matter, Vol. 11, Issue 6 https://doi.org/10.1039/C4SM01910E	journal	January 2015
Mesoscale structure of chiral nematic shells Zhou, Ye; Guo, Ashley; Zhang, Rui Soft Matter, Vol. 12, Issue 44 https://doi.org/10.1039/C6SM01284A	journal	January 2016
Microparticles confined to a nematic liquid crystal shell Gharbi, Mohamed Amine; Seč, David; Lopez-Leon, Teresa Soft Matter, Vol. 9, Issue 29 https://doi.org/10.1039/c3sm00126a	journal	January 2013
Bivalent defect configurations in inhomogeneous nematic shells Koning, Vinzenz; Lopez-Leon, Teresa; Fernandez-Nieves, Alberto Soft Matter, Vol. 9, Issue 20 https://doi.org/10.1039/c3sm27671f	journal	January 2013
Dispersions of ellipsoidal particles in a nematic liquid crystal Tasinkevych, Mykola; Mondiot, Frédéric; Mondain-Monval, Olivier Soft Matter, Vol. 10, Issue 12 https://doi.org/10.1039/c3sm52708e	journal	January 2014
Microscope textures of nematic droplets in polymer dispersed liquid crystals Ondris‐Crawford, Renate; Boyko, Evan P.; Wagner, Brian G. Journal of Applied Physics, Vol. 69, Issue 9 https://doi.org/10.1063/1.348840	journal	May 1991
Nanoparticle self-assembly at the interface of liquid crystal droplets Rahimi, Mohammad; Roberts, Tyler F.; Armas-Pérez, Julio C. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Vol. 112, Issue 17 https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1422785112	journal	April 2015
Waltzing route toward double-helix formation in cholesteric shells Darmon, Alexandre; Benzaquen, Michael; Seč, David Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Vol. 113, Issue 34 https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1525059113	journal	August 2016
Landau–de Gennes modelling of nematic liquid crystal colloids Ravnik, Miha; Žumer, Slobodan Liquid Crystals, Vol. 36, Issue 10-11 https://doi.org/10.1080/02678290903056095	journal	August 2009
Soft Matter Physics Doi, Masao Oxford University Press https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199652952.001.0001	book	January 2013
Tuning the defect configurations in nematic and smectic liquid crystalline shells Liang, Hsin-Ling; Noh, JungHyun; Zentel, Rudolf Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A: Mathematical, Physical and Engineering Sciences, Vol. 371, Issue 1988 https://doi.org/10.1098/rsta.2012.0258	journal	April 2013
Disorientation-induced disordering at a nematic-liquid-crystal–solid interface Nobili, M.; Durand, G. Physical Review A, Vol. 46, Issue 10 https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevA.46.R6174	journal	November 1992
Nematic textures in spherical shells Vitelli, V.; Nelson, D. R. Physical Review E, Vol. 74, Issue 2 https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevE.74.021711	journal	August 2006
Topological transformations in bipolar shells of nematic liquid crystals Lopez-Leon, T.; Fernandez-Nieves, A. Physical Review E, Vol. 79, Issue 2 https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevE.79.021707	journal	February 2009
Defect trajectories in nematic shells: Role of elastic anisotropy and thickness heterogeneity Seč, David; Lopez-Leon, Teresa; Nobili, Maurizio Physical Review E, Vol. 86, Issue 2 https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevE.86.020705	journal	August 2012
Defect coalescence in spherical nematic shells Lopez-Leon, Teresa; Bates, Martin A.; Fernandez-Nieves, Alberto Physical Review E, Vol. 86, Issue 3 https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevE.86.030702	journal	September 2012
Confined nematic liquid crystal between two spherical boundaries with planar anchoring Seyednejad, Seyed Reza; Mozaffari, Mohammad Reza; Ejtehadi, Mohammad Reza Physical Review E, Vol. 88, Issue 1 https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevE.88.012508	journal	July 2013
Equilibrium state of a cylindrical particle with flat ends in nematic liquid crystals Hashemi, S. Masoomeh; Ejtehadi, Mohammad Reza Physical Review E, Vol. 91, Issue 1 https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevE.91.012503	journal	January 2015
Spherical nematic shells with a threefold valence Koning, Vinzenz; Lopez-Leon, Teresa; Darmon, Alexandre Physical Review E, Vol. 94, Issue 1 https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevE.94.012703	journal	July 2016
Controlling Surface Defect Valence in Colloids Skačej, G.; Zannoni, C. Physical Review Letters, Vol. 100, Issue 19 https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.100.197802	journal	May 2008
Topological Defects in Spherical Nematics Shin, Homin; Bowick, Mark J.; Xing, Xiangjun Physical Review Letters, Vol. 101, Issue 3 https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.101.037802	journal	July 2008
Nematic-Smectic Transition in Spherical Shells Lopez-Leon, Teresa; Fernandez-Nieves, Alberto; Nobili, Maurizio Physical Review Letters, Vol. 106, Issue 24 https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.106.247802	journal	June 2011
Nematic-Field-Driven Positioning of Particles in Liquid Crystal Droplets Whitmer, Jonathan K.; Wang, Xiaoguang; Mondiot, Frederic Physical Review Letters, Vol. 111, Issue 22 https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.111.227801	journal	November 2013
Two-Dimensional Nematic Colloidal Crystals Self-Assembled by Topological Defects Musevic, I. Science, Vol. 313, Issue 5789 https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1129660	journal	August 2006
Endotoxin-Induced Structural Transformations in Liquid Crystalline Droplets Lin, I. -H.; Miller, D. S.; Bertics, P. J. Science, Vol. 332, Issue 6035 https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1195639	journal	May 2011
Design of Responsive and Active (Soft) Materials Using Liquid Crystals Bukusoglu, Emre; Bedolla Pantoja, Marco; Mushenheim, Peter C. Annual Review of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, Vol. 7, Issue 1 https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-chembioeng-061114-123323	journal	June 2016
Modeling planar degenerate wetting and anchoring in nematic liquid crystals Fournier, J. -B; Galatola, P. Europhysics Letters (EPL), Vol. 72, Issue 3 https://doi.org/10.1209/epl/i2005-10253-5	journal	November 2005
Dripping, Jetting, Drops, and Wetting: The Magic of Microfluidics Utada, A. S.; Chu, L. -Y.; Fernandez-Nieves, A. MRS Bulletin, Vol. 32, Issue 9 https://doi.org/10.1557/mrs2007.145	journal	September 2007

Similar Records

Patterned surface anchoring of nematic droplets at miscible liquid–liquid interfaces

Journal Article · Mon Jul 03 00:00:00 EDT 2017 · Soft Matter · OSTI ID:1616862

Homeotropic nano-particle assembly on degenerate planar nematic interfaces: films and droplets

Journal Article · Wed May 20 00:00:00 EDT 2015 · Soft Matter · OSTI ID:1603434

Mesoscale structure of chiral nematic shells

Journal Article · Mon Sep 12 00:00:00 EDT 2016 · Soft Matter · OSTI ID:1603435

Related Subjects

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CHEMISTRY

Spherical nematic shells with a prolate ellipsoidal core

Citation Formats

References (45)

Similar Records

Related Subjects