DOE PAGES title logo U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Scientific and Technical Information

Title: Electrostatically controlled surface boundary conditions in nematic liquid crystals and colloids

Abstract

Differing from isotropic fluids, liquid crystals exhibit highly anisotropic interactions with surfaces, which define boundary conditions for the alignment of constituent rod-like molecules at interfaces with colloidal inclusions and confining substrates. We show that surface alignment of the nematic molecules can be controlled by harnessing the competing aligning effects of surface functionalization and electric field arising from surface charging and bulk counterions. The control of ionic content in the bulk and at surfaces allows for tuning orientations of shape-anisotropic particles like platelets within an aligned nematic host and for changing the orientation of director relative to confining substrates. The ensuing anisotropic elastic and electrostatic interactions enable colloidal crystals with reconfigurable symmetries and orientations of inclusions.

Authors:
ORCiD logo [1]; ORCiD logo [1];  [1]; ORCiD logo [1]; ORCiD logo [1]; ORCiD logo [1]
  1. Univ. of Colorado, Boulder, CO (United States)
Publication Date:
Research Org.:
Univ. of Colorado, Boulder, CO (United States)
Sponsoring Org.:
USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES)
OSTI Identifier:
1611387
Grant/Contract Number:  
SC0010305; SC0019293
Resource Type:
Accepted Manuscript
Journal Name:
Science Advances
Additional Journal Information:
Journal Volume: 5; Journal Issue: 9; Journal ID: ISSN 2375-2548
Publisher:
AAAS
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Subject:
75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND SUPERFLUIDITY; Science & Technology - Other Topics

Citation Formats

Mundoor, Haridas, Senyuk, Bohdan, Almansouri, Mahmoud, Park, Sungoh, Fleury, Blaise, and Smalyukh, Ivan I. Electrostatically controlled surface boundary conditions in nematic liquid crystals and colloids. United States: N. p., 2019. Web. doi:10.1126/sciadv.aax4257.
Mundoor, Haridas, Senyuk, Bohdan, Almansouri, Mahmoud, Park, Sungoh, Fleury, Blaise, & Smalyukh, Ivan I. Electrostatically controlled surface boundary conditions in nematic liquid crystals and colloids. United States. https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.aax4257
Mundoor, Haridas, Senyuk, Bohdan, Almansouri, Mahmoud, Park, Sungoh, Fleury, Blaise, and Smalyukh, Ivan I. Wed . "Electrostatically controlled surface boundary conditions in nematic liquid crystals and colloids". United States. https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.aax4257. https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1611387.
@article{osti_1611387,
title = {Electrostatically controlled surface boundary conditions in nematic liquid crystals and colloids},
author = {Mundoor, Haridas and Senyuk, Bohdan and Almansouri, Mahmoud and Park, Sungoh and Fleury, Blaise and Smalyukh, Ivan I.},
abstractNote = {Differing from isotropic fluids, liquid crystals exhibit highly anisotropic interactions with surfaces, which define boundary conditions for the alignment of constituent rod-like molecules at interfaces with colloidal inclusions and confining substrates. We show that surface alignment of the nematic molecules can be controlled by harnessing the competing aligning effects of surface functionalization and electric field arising from surface charging and bulk counterions. The control of ionic content in the bulk and at surfaces allows for tuning orientations of shape-anisotropic particles like platelets within an aligned nematic host and for changing the orientation of director relative to confining substrates. The ensuing anisotropic elastic and electrostatic interactions enable colloidal crystals with reconfigurable symmetries and orientations of inclusions.},
doi = {10.1126/sciadv.aax4257},
journal = {Science Advances},
number = 9,
volume = 5,
place = {United States},
year = {Wed Sep 04 00:00:00 EDT 2019},
month = {Wed Sep 04 00:00:00 EDT 2019}
}

Journal Article:
Free Publicly Available Full Text
Publisher's Version of Record

Citation Metrics:
Cited by: 17 works
Citation information provided by
Web of Science

Save / Share:

Works referenced in this record:

Physics of colloidal dispersions in nematic liquid crystals
journal, October 2001


Triclinic nematic colloidal crystals from competing elastic and electrostatic interactions
journal, March 2016


Statistical Mechanics of a Simple Model of the Nematic Liquid Crystal-Wall Interface II
journal, January 1985

  • Poniewierski, A.; Sluckin, T. J.
  • Molecular Crystals and Liquid Crystals, Vol. 126, Issue 2-4
  • DOI: 10.1080/00268948508084786

One-Step Hydrothermal Synthesis of Carboxyl-Functionalized Upconversion Phosphors for Bioapplications
journal, September 2012

  • Yang, Jianping; Shen, Dengke; Li, Xiaomin
  • Chemistry - A European Journal, Vol. 18, Issue 43
  • DOI: 10.1002/chem.201202336

Novel Colloidal Interactions in Anisotropic Fluids
journal, March 1997


Hypercomplex Liquid Crystals
journal, March 2014


A new colloidal model system to study long-range interactions quantitatively in real space
journal, November 2003

  • Royall, C. P.; Leunissen, M. E.; Blaaderen, A. van
  • Journal of Physics: Condensed Matter, Vol. 15, Issue 48
  • DOI: 10.1088/0953-8984/15/48/017

Shape-Controlled Colloidal Interactions in Nematic Liquid Crystals
journal, November 2009


Liquid crystal colloids
journal, April 2018


Coupling of the Orientations of Liquid Crystals to Electrical Double Layers Formed by the Dissociation of Surface-Immobilized Salts
journal, May 2001

  • Shah, Rahul R.; Abbott, Nicholas L.
  • The Journal of Physical Chemistry B, Vol. 105, Issue 21
  • DOI: 10.1021/jp004073g

Principles of Condensed Matter Physics
book, January 1995


Hexadecapolar colloids
journal, February 2016

  • Senyuk, Bohdan; Puls, Owen; Tovkach, Oleh M.
  • Nature Communications, Vol. 7, Issue 1
  • DOI: 10.1038/ncomms10659

Liquid-crystal materials find a new order in biomedical applications
journal, November 2007

  • Woltman, Scott J.; Jay, Gregory D.; Crawford, Gregory P.
  • Nature Materials, Vol. 6, Issue 12
  • DOI: 10.1038/nmat2010

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

Self-assembled nematic colloidal motors powered by light
journal, November 2018


Rotational and translational diffusion of anisotropic gold nanoparticles in liquid crystals controlled by varying surface anchoring
journal, December 2013


A Self-Quenched Defect Glass in a Colloid-Nematic Liquid Crystal Composite
journal, October 2011


Theory of magnetic suspensions in liquid crystals
journal, January 1970


Stokes Drag on a Sphere in a Nematic Liquid Crystal
journal, November 2004


Hybrid molecular-colloidal liquid crystals
journal, May 2018


Biaxial ferromagnetic liquid crystal colloids
journal, September 2016

  • Liu, Qingkun; Ackerman, Paul J.; Lubensky, Tom C.
  • Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Vol. 113, Issue 38
  • DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1601235113

Liquid Crystal Colloids
journal, March 2018


Quasicrystalline tilings with nematic colloidal platelets
journal, February 2014

  • Dontabhaktuni, J.; Ravnik, M.; Zumer, S.
  • Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Vol. 111, Issue 7
  • DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1312670111

Alignment of high-aspect ratio colloidal gold nanoplatelets in nematic liquid crystals
journal, August 2011

  • Evans, Julian S.; Beier, Corinne N.; Smalyukh, Ivan I.
  • Journal of Applied Physics, Vol. 110, Issue 3
  • DOI: 10.1063/1.3620550

Topological defects and interactions in nematic emulsions
journal, January 1998


Triclinic nematic colloidal crystals from competing elastic and electrostatic interactions
text, January 2016


Hexadecapolar colloids
text, January 2016


Self-assembled nematic colloidal motors powered by light
text, January 2020


One-Step Hydrothermal Synthesis of Carboxyl-Functionalized Upconversion Phosphors for Bioapplications
journal, September 2012

  • Yang, Jianping; Shen, Dengke; Li, Xiaomin
  • Chemistry - A European Journal, Vol. 18, Issue 43
  • DOI: 10.1002/chem.201202336

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

Hexadecapolar colloids
journal, February 2016

  • Senyuk, Bohdan; Puls, Owen; Tovkach, Oleh M.
  • Nature Communications, Vol. 7, Issue 1
  • DOI: 10.1038/ncomms10659

Liquid-crystal materials find a new order in biomedical applications
journal, November 2007

  • Woltman, Scott J.; Jay, Gregory D.; Crawford, Gregory P.
  • Nature Materials, Vol. 6, Issue 12
  • DOI: 10.1038/nmat2010

Quasicrystalline tilings with nematic colloidal platelets
journal, February 2014

  • Dontabhaktuni, J.; Ravnik, M.; Zumer, S.
  • Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Vol. 111, Issue 7
  • DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1312670111

Biaxial ferromagnetic liquid crystal colloids
journal, September 2016

  • Liu, Qingkun; Ackerman, Paul J.; Lubensky, Tom C.
  • Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Vol. 113, Issue 38
  • DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1601235113

Geometry-guided colloidal interactions and self-tiling of elastic dipoles formed by truncated pyramid particles in liquid crystals
journal, April 2015


Key-lock colloids in a nematic liquid crystal
journal, January 2017


Memory-Free Conic Anchoring of Liquid Crystals on a Solid Substrate
journal, April 2000


Stokes Drag on a Sphere in a Nematic Liquid Crystal
journal, November 2004


Shape-Controlled Colloidal Interactions in Nematic Liquid Crystals
journal, November 2009


A Self-Quenched Defect Glass in a Colloid-Nematic Liquid Crystal Composite
journal, October 2011


How to achieve a successful biaxial marriage
journal, May 2018


Works referencing / citing this record:

Colloidal interactions and unusual crystallization versus de-mixing of elastic multipoles formed by gold mesoflowers
journal, January 2020