Splay-bend nematic phases of bent colloidal silica rods induced by polydispersity

Ramakrishna Kotni; Albert Grau-Carbonell; Massimiliano Chiappini; Marjolein Dijkstra; Alfons van Blaaderen

doi:10.1038/s41467-022-34658-y

Splay-bend nematic phases of bent colloidal silica rods induced by polydispersity

Ramakrishna Kotni, Albert Grau-Carbonell, Massimiliano Chiappini, Marjolein Dijkstra^*, Alfons van Blaaderen

^*Corresponding author for this work

Utrecht University

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › Academic › peer-review

Abstract

Liquid crystal (LC) phases are in between solids and liquids with properties of both. Nematic LCs composed of rod-like molecules or particles exhibit long-range orientational order, yielding characteristic birefringence, but they lack positional order, allowing them to flow like a liquid. This combination of properties as well as their sensitivity to external fields make nematic LCs fundamental for optical applications e.g. liquid crystal displays (LCDs). When rod-like particles become bent, spontaneous bend deformations arise in the LC, leading to geometric frustration which can be resolved by complementary twist or splay deformations forming intriguing twist-bend (N_TB) and splay-bend (N_SB) nematic phases. Here, we show experimentally that the elusive N_SB phases can be stabilized in systems of polydisperse micron-sized bent silica rods. Our results open avenues for the realization of N_TB and N_SB phases of colloidal and molecular LCs.

Original language	English
Article number	7264
Pages (from-to)	1-9
Number of pages	9
Journal	Nature Communications
Volume	13
Issue number	1
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-022-34658-y
Publication status	Published - 1 Dec 2022

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
R. Kotni, and A. van Blaaderen acknowledge the Netherlands Center for Multiscale Catalytic Energy Conversion (MCEC), an NWO Gravitation program funded by the Ministry of Education, Culture and Science of the government of the Netherlands. A. Grau-Carbonell acknowledges funding from the European Research Council (ERC) via the ERC Consolidator Grant NANO-INSITU (grant no. 683076). M. Chiappini and M. Dijkstra acknowledge financial support from the EU H2020-MSCA-ITN- 2015 project “MULTIMAT” (Marie Sklodowska-Curie Innovative Training Networks) [project number: 676045]. M. Dijkstra also acknowledges funding from the European Research Council (Grant No. ERC-2019-ADG 884902 SoftML).

Publisher Copyright:
© 2022, The Author(s).

Funding

R. Kotni, and A. van Blaaderen acknowledge the Netherlands Center for Multiscale Catalytic Energy Conversion (MCEC), an NWO Gravitation program funded by the Ministry of Education, Culture and Science of the government of the Netherlands. A. Grau-Carbonell acknowledges funding from the European Research Council (ERC) via the ERC Consolidator Grant NANO-INSITU (grant no. 683076). M. Chiappini and M. Dijkstra acknowledge financial support from the EU H2020-MSCA-ITN- 2015 project “MULTIMAT” (Marie Sklodowska-Curie Innovative Training Networks) [project number: 676045]. M. Dijkstra also acknowledges funding from the European Research Council (Grant No. ERC-2019-ADG 884902 SoftML).

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Cite this

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abstract = "Liquid crystal (LC) phases are in between solids and liquids with properties of both. Nematic LCs composed of rod-like molecules or particles exhibit long-range orientational order, yielding characteristic birefringence, but they lack positional order, allowing them to flow like a liquid. This combination of properties as well as their sensitivity to external fields make nematic LCs fundamental for optical applications e.g. liquid crystal displays (LCDs). When rod-like particles become bent, spontaneous bend deformations arise in the LC, leading to geometric frustration which can be resolved by complementary twist or splay deformations forming intriguing twist-bend (NTB) and splay-bend (NSB) nematic phases. Here, we show experimentally that the elusive NSB phases can be stabilized in systems of polydisperse micron-sized bent silica rods. Our results open avenues for the realization of NTB and NSB phases of colloidal and molecular LCs.",

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Splay-bend nematic phases of bent colloidal silica rods induced by polydispersity

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