0000000001246538
AUTHOR
Jan P. F. Lagerwall
Dynamic tuning of the director field in liquid crystal shells using block copolymers
When an orientationally ordered system, like a nematic liquid crystal (LC), is confined on a self-closing spherical shell, topological constraints arise with intriguing consequences that depend critically on how the LC is aligned in the shell. We demonstrate reversible dynamic tuning of the alignment, and thereby the topology, of nematic LC shells stabilized by the nonionic amphiphilic block copolymer Pluronic F127. Deep in the nematic phase, the director (the average molecule orientation) is tangential to the interface, but upon approaching the temperature TNI of the nematic– isotropic transition, the director realigns to normal. We link this to a delicate interplay between an interfacial …
Tuning the defect configurations in nematic and smectic liquid crystalline shells
Thin liquid crystalline shells surrounding and surrounded by aqueous phases can be conveniently produced using a nested capillary microfluidic system, as was first demonstrated by Fernandez-Nieves et al. in 2007. By choosing particular combinations of stabilizers in the internal and external phases, different types of alignment, uniform or hybrid, can be ensured within the shell. Here, we investigate shells in the nematic and smectic phases under varying boundary conditions, focusing in particular on textural transformations during phase transitions, on the interaction between topological defects in the director field and inclusions in the liquid crystal (LC), and on the possibility to rel…
ChemInform Abstract: Tuning the Defect Configurations in Nematic and Smectic Liquid Crystalline Shells
Thin liquid crystalline shells surrounding and surrounded by aqueous phases can be conveniently produced using a nested capillary microfluidic system, as was first demonstrated by Fernandez-Nieves et al. in 2007. By choosing particular combinations of stabilizers in the internal and external phases, different types of alignment, uniform or hybrid, can be ensured within the shell. Here, we investigate shells in the nematic and smectic phases under varying boundary conditions, focusing in particular on textural transformations during phase transitions, on the interaction between topological defects in the director field and inclusions in the liquid crystal (LC), and on the possibility to relo…
One-piece micropumps from liquid crystalline core-shell particles
Responsive polymers are low-cost, light weight and flexible, and thus an attractive class of materials for the integration into micromechanical and lab-on-chip systems. Triggered by external stimuli, liquid crystalline elastomers are able to perform mechanical motion and can be utilized as microactuators. Here we present the fabrication of one-piece micropumps from liquid crystalline core-shell elastomer particles via a microfluidic double-emulsion process, the continuous nature of which enables a low-cost and rapid production. The liquid crystalline elastomer shell contains a liquid core, which is reversibly pumped into and out of the particle by actuation of the liquid crystalline shell i…
Ferroelectric polysiloxane liquid crystals with ‘de Vries’-type smectic A*–smectic C* transitions
We report preliminary results of optical and small angle X-ray scattering (SAXS) experiments on the smectic A*−smectic C* transition in two ferroelectric liquid crystalline polysiloxanes. Although the optical tilt angle in the SmC* phases reaches values up to 30°, temperature-dependent SAXS measurements clearly reveal that the smectic layer spacing is basically conserved during the A*–C* transition as well as in the subsequent C* phase. Connected with the A*–C* transition we further observed a significant increase in birefringence, hence reflecting an increase of orientational order. The practical absence of layer shrinkage and the enhanced orientational ordering are consistent with the de …
Tuneable multicoloured patterns from photonic cross-communication between cholesteric liquid crystal droplets
Monodisperse droplets of planar-aligned cholesteric (N*) liquid crystal exhibit an intriguing capacity for photonic cross-communication, giving rise to colourful patterns that depend sensitively on the N* pitch, droplet positions and illuminated area. The phenomenon results from a combination of omnidirectional selective reflection of N* droplets—which thus act as spherically symmetric self-assembled photonic crystals—and total internal reflection at the continuous phase surface. We outline how the unique optical properties can be employed in numerous applications.
Differences between smectic homo‐ and co‐polysiloxanes as a consequence of microphase separation
This paper compares smectic phases formed from LC‐homo‐ and LC‐co‐polysiloxanes. In the homopolysiloxane, each repeating unit of the polymer chain is substituted with a mesogen, whereas in the copolysiloxanes mesogenic repeating units are separated by dimethylsiloxane units. Despite a rather similiar phase sequence of the homo‐ and co‐polysiloxanes—higher ordered smectic, smectic C* (SmC*), smectic A (SmA) and isotropic—the nature of their phases differs strongly. For the copolymers the phase transition SmC* to SmA is second order and of the ‘de Vries’ type with a very small thickness change of the smectic layers. Inside the SmA phase, however, the smectic thickness decreases strongly on ap…
Towards micrometer sized core-shell actuators from liquid crystalline elastomers by a continuous flow synthesis
We present here the successful preparation of liquid crystalline core-shell elastomers via a microfluidic double-emulsion process. The customized set-up allows for a temperature-controlled fabrication of the core-shell particles from a thermoresponsive mesogenic monomer. The nematic liquid crystalline shell is filled with a non-mesogenic core of silicone oil. To verify the core-shell structure with optical microscopy, we prepared particles with a colored core using a red dye. We were also able to micro-manipulate the particles and penetrate them with a small glass capillary to extract the liquid core.
Towards tunable defect arrangements in smectic liquid crystal shells utilizing the nematic–smectic transition in hybrid-aligned geometries
We produce and investigate liquid crystal shells with hybrid alignment—planar at one boundary, homeotropic at the other—undergoing a transition between the nematic (N) and smectic-A (SmA) phases. The shells display a dynamic sequence of patterns, the details depending on the alignment agents and on the diameter and thickness of the shell. In shells of sufficient diameter we typically find a transient striped texture near the N–SmA transition, stabilising into a pattern of tiled, more or less regularly spaced focal conic domains in the SmA phase. The domain size and spacing decrease with reduced shell thickness. In case of strong homeotropic anchoring at one boundary and small shell size, ho…
Dynamic tuning of the director field in liquid crystal shells using block copolymers
When a nematic liquid crystal (LC) is confined on a self-closing spherical shell, topological constraints arise with intriguing consequences that depend critically on how the LC is aligned in the shell. We demonstrate reversible dynamic tuning of the alignment, and thereby the topology, of nematic LC shells stabilized by the nonionic amphiphilic block copolymer Pluronic F127. Deep in the nematic phase, the director is tangential to the interface, but upon approaching the temperature TNI of the nematic-isotropic transition, the director realigns to normal. We link this to a delicate interplay between an interfacial tension that is nearly independent of director orientation, and the configura…