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Instabilities, defects, and defect ordering in an overdamped active nematic.

ABSTRACT: We consider a phenomenological continuum theory for an extensile, overdamped active nematic liquid crystal, applicable in the dense regime. Constructed from general principles, the theory is universal, with parameters independent of any particular microscopic realization. We show that it exhibits two distinct instabilities, one of which arises due to shear forces, and the other due to active torques. Both lead to the proliferation of defects. We focus on the active torque bend instability and find three distinct nonequilibrium steady states including a defect-ordered nematic in which +½ disclinations develop polar ordering. We characterize the phenomenology of these phases and identify the relationship of this theoretical description to experimental realizations and other theoretical models of active nematics.

SUBMITTER: Putzig E

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5166704 | biostudies-literature | 2016 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Instabilities, defects, and defect ordering in an overdamped active nematic.

Putzig Elias E Redner Gabriel S GS Baskaran Arvind A Baskaran Aparna A

Soft matter 20160317 17

We consider a phenomenological continuum theory for an extensile, overdamped active nematic liquid crystal, applicable in the dense regime. Constructed from general principles, the theory is universal, with parameters independent of any particular microscopic realization. We show that it exhibits two distinct instabilities, one of which arises due to shear forces, and the other due to active torques. Both lead to the proliferation of defects. We focus on the active torque bend instability and fi ...[more]

PMID: 26983376

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Project description:We report that phospholipid vesicles incorporating ligands, when captured from solution onto surfaces presenting receptors for these ligands, can trigger surface-induced orientational ordering transitions in nematic phases of 4'-pentyl-4-cyanobiphenyl (5CB). Specifically, whereas avidin-functionalized surfaces incubated against vesicles composed of 1,2-dioleoyl-sn-glycero-3-phosphocholine (DOPC) were observed to cause the liquid crystal (LC) to adopt a parallel orientation at the surface, the same surfaces incubated against biotinylated vesicles (DOPC and 1,2-dioleoyl-sn-glycero-3-phosphoethanolamine-N-(biotinyl) (biotin-DOPE)) caused the homeotropic (perpendicular) ordering of the LC. The use of a combination of atomic force microscopy (AFM), ellipsometry and quantitative fluorimetry, performed as a function of vesicle composition and vesicle concentration in solution, revealed the capture of intact vesicles containing 1% biotin-DOPE from buffer at the avidin-functionalized surfaces. Subsequent exposure to water prior to contact with the LC, however, resulted in the rupture of the majority of vesicles into interfacial multilayer assemblies with a maximum phospholipid loading set by random close packing of the intact vesicles initially captured on the surface (5.1 ± 0.2 phospholipid molecules/nm(2)). At high concentrations of biotinylated lipid (>10% biotin-DOPE) in the vesicles, the limiting lipid loading was measured to be 4.0 ± 0.3 phospholipid molecules/nm(2), consistent with the maximum phospholipid loading set by the spontaneous formation of a bilayer during incubation with the biotinylated vesicles. We measured the homeotropic ordering of the LC on the surfaces independently of the initial morphology of the phospholipid assembly captured on the surface (intact vesicle, planar multilayer). We interpret this result to infer the reorganization of the phospholipid bilayers either prior to or upon contact with the LCs such that interactions of the acyl chains of the phospholipid and the LC dominate the ordering of the LC, a conclusion that is further supported by quantitative measurements of the orientation of the LC as a function of the phospholipid surface density (>1.8 molecules/nm(2) is required to cause the homeotropic ordering of the LC). These results and others presented herein provide fundamental insights into the interactions of phospholipid-decorated interfaces with LCs and thereby provide guidance for the design of surfaces on which phospholipid assemblies captured through ligand-receptor recognition can be reported via ordering transitions in LCs.

Dataset Information

Instabilities, defects, and defect ordering in an overdamped active nematic.

Publications

Instabilities, defects, and defect ordering in an overdamped active nematic.

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