skip to main content
DOE PAGES title logo U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Scientific and Technical Information

Title: Spontaneous liquid crystal and ferromagnetic ordering of colloidal magnetic nanoplates

Abstract

Ferrofluids are familiar as colloidal suspensions of ferromagnetic nanoparticles in aqueous or organic solvents. The dispersed particles are randomly oriented but their moments become aligned if a magnetic field is applied, producing a variety of exotic and useful magnetomechanical effects. A longstanding interest and challenge has been to make such suspensions macroscopically ferromagnetic, that is having uniform magnetic alignment in the absence of a field. Here we report a fluid suspension of magnetic nanoplates that spontaneously aligns into an equilibrium nematic liquid crystal phase that is also macroscopically ferromagnetic. We find Its zero-field magnetization produces distinctive magnetic self-interaction effects, including liquid crystal textures of fluid block domains arranged in closed flux loops, and makes this phase highly sensitive, with it dramatically changing shape even in the Earth’s magnetic field.

Authors:
 [1];  [1];  [1];  [1];  [1];  [2];  [3];  [4];  [4];  [5];  [1];  [1];  [1]
+ Show Author Affiliations
  1. Univ. of Colorado, Boulder, CO (United States)
  2. Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States). Advanced Light Source (ALS)
  3. Case Western Reserve Univ., Cleveland, OH (United States)
  4. Jozef Stefan Inst. (IJS), Ljubljana (Slovenia)
  5. Jozef Stefan Inst. (IJS), Ljubljana (Slovenia); Univ. of Ljubljana, Ljubljana (Slovenia)
Publication Date:
Research Org.:
Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States)
Sponsoring Org.:
USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES)
OSTI Identifier:
1255545
Grant/Contract Number:  
AC02-05CH11231; DMR-0820579; DMR-1420736
Resource Type:
Accepted Manuscript
Journal Name:
Nature Communications
Additional Journal Information:
Journal Volume: 7; Journal ID: ISSN 2041-1723
Publisher:
Nature Publishing Group
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Subject:
77 NANOSCIENCE AND NANOTECHNOLOGY

Citation Formats

Shuai, M., Klittnick, A., Shen, Y., Smith, G. P., Tuchband, M. R., Zhu, C., Petschek, R. G., Mertelj, A., Lisjak, D., Čopič, M., Maclennan, J. E., Glaser, M. A., and Clark, N. A. Spontaneous liquid crystal and ferromagnetic ordering of colloidal magnetic nanoplates. United States: N. p., 2016. Web. doi:10.1038/ncomms10394.
Copy to clipboard
Shuai, M., Klittnick, A., Shen, Y., Smith, G. P., Tuchband, M. R., Zhu, C., Petschek, R. G., Mertelj, A., Lisjak, D., Čopič, M., Maclennan, J. E., Glaser, M. A., & Clark, N. A. Spontaneous liquid crystal and ferromagnetic ordering of colloidal magnetic nanoplates. United States. doi:10.1038/ncomms10394.
Copy to clipboard
Shuai, M., Klittnick, A., Shen, Y., Smith, G. P., Tuchband, M. R., Zhu, C., Petschek, R. G., Mertelj, A., Lisjak, D., Čopič, M., Maclennan, J. E., Glaser, M. A., and Clark, N. A. Thu . "Spontaneous liquid crystal and ferromagnetic ordering of colloidal magnetic nanoplates". United States. doi:10.1038/ncomms10394. https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1255545.
Copy to clipboard
@article{osti_1255545,
title = {Spontaneous liquid crystal and ferromagnetic ordering of colloidal magnetic nanoplates},
author = {Shuai, M. and Klittnick, A. and Shen, Y. and Smith, G. P. and Tuchband, M. R. and Zhu, C. and Petschek, R. G. and Mertelj, A. and Lisjak, D. and Čopič, M. and Maclennan, J. E. and Glaser, M. A. and Clark, N. A.},
abstractNote = {Ferrofluids are familiar as colloidal suspensions of ferromagnetic nanoparticles in aqueous or organic solvents. The dispersed particles are randomly oriented but their moments become aligned if a magnetic field is applied, producing a variety of exotic and useful magnetomechanical effects. A longstanding interest and challenge has been to make such suspensions macroscopically ferromagnetic, that is having uniform magnetic alignment in the absence of a field. Here we report a fluid suspension of magnetic nanoplates that spontaneously aligns into an equilibrium nematic liquid crystal phase that is also macroscopically ferromagnetic. We find Its zero-field magnetization produces distinctive magnetic self-interaction effects, including liquid crystal textures of fluid block domains arranged in closed flux loops, and makes this phase highly sensitive, with it dramatically changing shape even in the Earth’s magnetic field.},
doi = {10.1038/ncomms10394},
journal = {Nature Communications},
number = ,
volume = 7,
place = {United States},
year = {2016},
month = {1}
}
Copy to clipboard
Journal Article:
Free Publicly Available Full Text
Publisher's Version of Record
DOI:  10.1038/ncomms10394
Copyright Statement
Other availability
Search WorldCat Search WorldCat to find libraries that may hold this journal
Citation Metrics:
Cited by: 13 works
Citation information provided by
Web of Science
Save / Share:
Export Metadata
Save to My Library
You must Sign In or Create an Account in order to save documents to your library.

Works referenced in this record:

The interfacial stability of a ferromagnetic fluid
journal, December 1967

Behavior of a magnetic fluid microdrop in a rotating magnetic field
journal, April 1994

Theory of magnetic suspensions in liquid crystals
journal, January 1970

Ferronematics
journal, June 1970

Chain aggregate structure and magnetic birefringence in polydisperse ferrofluids
journal, August 2004

Molecular dynamics study on the equilibrium magnetization properties and structure of ferrofluids
journal, August 2002

Magnetic properties of colloidal suspensions of interacting magnetic particles
journal, August 2004

The Effects of Shape on the Interaction of Colloidal Particles
journal, May 1949

Liquid crystal phase transitions in suspensions of polydisperse plate-like particles
journal, August 2000

  • van der Kooij, Felix M.; Kassapidou, Katerina; Lekkerkerker, Henk N. W.
  • Nature, Vol. 406, Issue 6798
  • DOI: 10.1038/35022535

New Trends in Colloidal Liquid Crystals Based on Mineral Moieties
journal, January 2000

Ferromagnetism in suspensions of magnetic platelets in liquid crystal
journal, December 2013

  • Mertelj, Alenka; Lisjak, Darja; Drofenik, Miha
  • Nature, Vol. 504, Issue 7479
  • DOI: 10.1038/nature12863

Ferromagnetic ferrofluids
journal, December 2013

Monte Carlo Study of the Isotropic-Nematic Transition in a Fluid of Thin Hard Disks
journal, October 1982

Nematic–isotropic transition in polydisperse systems of infinitely thin hard platelets
journal, April 1999

  • Bates, Martin A.; Frenkel, Daan
  • The Journal of Chemical Physics, Vol. 110, Issue 13
  • DOI: 10.1063/1.478558

Influence of particle shape on the nematic—isotropic transition of colloidal platelet systems
journal, July 1999

  • Bates, Martin A.
  • The Journal of Chemical Physics, Vol. 111, Issue 4
  • DOI: 10.1063/1.479433

Isotropic-Nematic Phase Transition in Liquid Crystals
journal, August 1970

Liquid-crystalline aqueous clay suspensions
journal, October 2006

  • Michot, L. J.; Bihannic, I.; Maddi, S.
  • Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Vol. 103, Issue 44
  • DOI: 10.1073/pnas.0605201103

Magneto-optic and converse magnetoelectric effects in a ferromagnetic liquid crystal
journal, January 2014

  • Mertelj, Alenka; Osterman, Natan; Lisjak, Darja
  • Soft Matter, Vol. 10, Issue 45
  • DOI: 10.1039/C4SM01625D

Device Applications of Ferroelectric Liquid Crystals: Importance of Polarization Charge Interactions
conference, July 1989

  • Zhuang, Zhiming; Maclennan, Joseph E.; Clark, Noel A.
  • OE/LASE '89, SPIE Proceedings
  • DOI: 10.1117/12.976407

Elastic constants of hard thick platelets by Monte Carlo simulation and virial expansion
journal, January 2011

  • O'Brien, Paul A. C.; Allen, Michael P.; Cheung, David L.
  • Soft Matter, Vol. 7, Issue 1
  • DOI: 10.1039/C0SM00541J

Effect of high spontaneous polarization on defect structures and orientational dynamics of tilted chiral smectic freely suspended films
journal, February 2005

Physical Theory of Ferromagnetic Domains
journal, October 1949

Dynamics and stability of ferrofluids: surface interactions
journal, October 1969

Entropic Wetting and the Free Isotropic−Nematic Interface of Hard Colloidal Platelets
journal, July 2007

  • Reich, Hendrik; Dijkstra, Marjolein; van Roij, René
  • The Journal of Physical Chemistry B, Vol. 111, Issue 27
  • DOI: 10.1021/jp068870b

Isotropic-Nematic Interface and Wetting in Suspensions of Colloidal Platelets
journal, August 2006

Salt-Induced Ordering in Lamellar Colloids
journal, March 2002

Dipolar and Quadrupolar Ordering in S = 3 2 Ising Systems
journal, February 1972

Ferroelectric nematic liquid-crystal phases of dipolar hard ellipsoids
journal, November 1989

Simple Molecular Model for the Smectic A Phase of Liquid Crystals
journal, September 1971

Ferroelectric Nematic Liquid Crystals: Realizability and Molecular Constraints
journal, May 1988

Directed Assembly of BaFe 12 O 19 Particles and the Formation of Magnetically Oriented Films
journal, December 2011

Chemical Substitution—An Alternative Strategy for Controlling the Particle Size of Barium Ferrite
journal, October 2012

  • Lisjak, Darja; Drofenik, Miha
  • Crystal Growth & Design, Vol. 12, Issue 11
  • DOI: 10.1021/cg301227r
    [ × clear filter / sort ]

    Works referencing / citing this record:

    Structure-Relaxivity Relationships of Magnetic Nanoparticles for Magnetic Resonance Imaging
    journal, January 2019

    Magnetic Nanoplatelets for High Contrast Cardiovascular Imaging by Magnetically Modulated Optical Coherence Tomography
    journal, April 2019

    • Hu, Jie; Gorsak, Tanja; Martín Rodríguez, Emma
    • ChemPhotoChem, Vol. 3, Issue 7
    • DOI: 10.1002/cptc.201900071

    Gold Nanoparticles Thin Films with Thermo‐ and Photoresponsive Plasmonic Properties Realized with Liquid‐Crystalline Ligands
    journal, June 2019

    • Tomczyk, Ewelina; Promiński, Aleksander; Bagiński, Maciej
    • Small, Vol. 15, Issue 37
    • DOI: 10.1002/smll.201902807
      [ × clear filter / sort ]

      Similar Records in DOE PAGES and OSTI.GOV collections: