Colloidal Liquid Crystals Confined to Synthetic Tactoids.

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 confi

SUBMITTER: Garlea IC 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6938498 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature