Colloidal transport within nematic liquid crystals with arrays of obstacles

Soft Matter
Kui ChenRobert L Leheny

Abstract

We have investigated the gravity-driven transport of spherical colloids suspended in the nematic liquid crystal 4-cyano-4'-pentylbiphenyl (5CB) within microfluidic arrays of cylindrical obstacles arranged in a square lattice. Homeotropic anchoring at the surfaces of the obstacles created periodic director-field patterns that strongly influenced the motion of the colloids, whose surfaces had planar anchoring. When the gravitational force was oriented parallel to a principal axis of the lattice, the particles moved along channels between columns of obstacles and displayed pronounced modulations in their velocity. Quantitative analysis indicates that this modulation resulted from a combination of a spatially varying effective drag viscosity and elastic interactions engendered by the periodic director field. The interactions differed qualitatively from a sum of pair-wise interactions between the colloids and isolated obstacles, reflecting the distinct nematic environment created by confinement within the array. As the angle α between the gravitational force and principal axis of the lattice was varied, the velocity did not follow the force but instead locked into a discrete set of directions commensurate with the lattice. The trans...Continue Reading

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Citations

Apr 16, 2020·Physical Review. E·Kye Hyoung KilJun Soo Kim
Sep 23, 2018·Nature Communications·Yimin LuoKathleen J Stebe
Oct 28, 2020·Scientific Reports·Ebrahim MadadiSeyedEhsan Nedaaee Oskoee

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Methods Mentioned

BETA
confocal microscopy
polarization microscopy

Software Mentioned

Python

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