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Chiral liquid crystal colloids

Nature Materials volume 17, pages 71–79 (2018)Cite this article

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Abstract

Colloidal particles disturb the alignment of rod-like molecules of liquid crystals, giving rise to long-range interactions that minimize the free energy of distorted regions. Particle shape and topology are known to guide this self-assembly process. However, how chirality of colloidal inclusions affects these long-range interactions is unclear. Here we study the effects of distortions caused by chiral springs and helices on the colloidal self-organization in a nematic liquid crystal using laser tweezers, particle tracking and optical imaging. We show that chirality of colloidal particles interacts with the nematic elasticity to predefine chiral or racemic colloidal superstructures in nematic colloids. These findings are consistent with numerical modelling based on the minimization of Landau–de Gennes free energy. Our study uncovers the role of chirality in defining the mesoscopic order of liquid crystal colloids, suggesting that this feature may be a potential tool to modulate the global orientated self-organization of these systems.

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Figure 1: Microsprings in a nematic liquid crystal.
Figure 2: Chirality-dictated alignment of microsprings in a nematic liquid crystal.
Figure 3: Chirality-dictated alignment of single helices in a nematic liquid crystal.
Figure 4: Chirality-dependent pair interactions of colloidal springs.
Figure 5: Chirality-dependent pair interactions of microsprings.
Figure 6: Twisting of chiral particles relative to each other.

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Acknowledgements

We thank P. Davidson and T. Lubensky for discussions. We acknowledge support of the US Department of Energy, Office of Basic Energy Sciences, Division of Materials Sciences and Engineering, under Award ER46921, contract DE-SC0010305 with the University of Colorado Boulder, as well as partial support of the American Chemical Society Petroleum Research Fund Grant PRF 54095-ND7 (development of the instrument for particle fabrication).

Author information

Author notes

  1. Ye Yuan and Angel Martinez: These authors contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Physics and Soft Materials Research Center, University of Colorado, Boulder, Colorado, 80309, USA

    Ye Yuan, Angel Martinez, Bohdan Senyuk & Ivan I. Smalyukh

  2. Max-Planck-Institut für Intelligente Systeme, Heisenbergstrasse 3, D-70569 Stuttgart, Germany

    Mykola Tasinkevych

  3. IV. Institut für Theoretische Physik, Universität Stuttgart, Pfaffenwaldring 57, D-70569 Stuttgart, Germany

    Mykola Tasinkevych

  4. Departamento de Física, Centro de Física Teórica e Computacional, Faculdade de Ciências, Universidade de Lisboa, Campo Grande P-1749-016 Lisboa, Portugal

    Mykola Tasinkevych

  5. Department of Electrical, Computer, and Energy Engineering, Materials Science and Engineering Program, University of Colorado, Boulder, Colorado, 80309, USA

    Ivan I. Smalyukh

  6. Renewable and Sustainable Energy Institute, National Renewable Energy Laboratory and University of Colorado, Boulder, Colorado, 80309, USA

    Ivan I. Smalyukh

Authors
  1. Ye Yuan
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Contributions

Y.Y., A.M., B.S. and I.I.S. conducted experimental work and analysed data. M.T. performed numerical modelling. M.T. and I.I.S. wrote the manuscript, with the input from all authors. I.I.S. conceived and designed the project.

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Correspondence to Ivan I. Smalyukh.

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Yuan, Y., Martinez, A., Senyuk, B. et al. Chiral liquid crystal colloids. Nature Mater 17, 71–79 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1038/nmat5032

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