Journal Article

FZJ-2020-00035

http://join2-wiki.gsi.de/foswiki/pub/Main/Artwork/join2_logo100x88.png Colloidal Liquid Crystals Confinedto Synthetic Tactoids

Garlea, I. C. (Corresponding author) ; Dammone, O. ; Alvarado, J. ; Nooteboom, V. ; Jia, Y. ; Koenderink, G. H. ; Aarts, D. G. A. L. ; Lettinga, M. P. (Corresponding author)FZJ* ; Mulder, B. M.

2019
Macmillan Publishers Limited, part of Springer Nature [London]

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Please use a persistent id in citations: http://hdl.handle.net/2128/23803  doi:10.1038/s41598-019-56729-9

Abstract: 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

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Contributing Institute(s):

1. Weiche Materie (ICS-3)

Research Program(s):

1. 551 - Functional Macromolecules and Complexes (POF3-551) (POF3-551)

Appears in the scientific report 2019

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