Surface alignment and anchoring transitions in nematic lyotropic chromonic liquid crystal

Liquid Crystal Networks Meet Water: It's Complicated!

Soft robots are composed of compliant materials that facilitate high degrees of freedom, shape-change adaptability, and safer interaction with humans. An attractive choice of material for soft robotics is crosslinked networks of liquid crystal polymers (LCNs), as they are responsive to a wide variety of external stimuli and capable of undergoing fast, programmable, complex shape morphing, which allows for their use in a wide range of soft robotic applications. However, unlike hydrogels, another popular material in soft robotics, LCNs have limited applicability in flooded or aquatic environments. This can be attributed not only to the poor efficiency of common LCN actuation methods underwater but also to the complicated relationship between LCNs and water. In this review, the relationship between water and LCNs is elaborated and the existing body of literature is surveyed where LCNs, both hygroscopic and non-hygroscopic, are utilized in aquatic soft robotic applications. Then the challenges LCNs face in widespread adaptation to aquatic soft robotic applications are discussed and, finally, possible paths forward for their successful use in aquatic environments are envisaged.

Toroidal nuclei of columnar lyotropic chromonic liquid crystals coexisting with an isotropic phase

Nuclei of ordered materials emerging from the isotropic state usually show a shape topologically equivalent to a sphere; the well-known examples are crystals and nematic liquid crystal droplets. In this work, we explore experimentally and theoretically the toroidal in shape nuclei of columnar lyotropic chromonic liquid crystals coexisting with the isotropic phase. The geometry of these toroids depends strongly on concentrations of the disodium cromoglycate (DSCG) and the crowding agent, polyethylene glycol (PEG). High concentrations of DSCG and PEG result in thick toroids with small central holes, while low concentrations yield thin toroids with wide holes. The multitude of the observed shapes is explained by the balance of bending elasticity and anisotropic interfacial tension.

Orientational order of dyes in a lyotropic chromonic liquid crystal

Absorption measurements allow the orientational order parameter of four dyes in the lyotropic chromonic liquid crystal di-sodium cromoglycate (DSCG) to be determined. The dye order parameters are small, except for dyes that intercalate between the DSCG molecules of the rod-like assemblies. The dye order parameters decrease with increasing temperature faster than the nematic order parameter of the DSCG assemblies. For intercalating dyes, the measured dye order parameter varies with the wavelength of the measurement because both intercalated and non-intercalated dye molecules contribute. On the contrary, measurements of the dye order parameter using fluorescence are sensitive only to intercalated dye molecules and produce values that reflect the order parameter of the DSCG assemblies. Therefore, the temperature and concentration dependence of the DSCG order parameter is also explored, since data of this kind on this often-studied system are lacking. Finally, the association constant of one of the intercalating dyes with the DSCG assemblies is determined, yielding a value considerably less than what is found for the same dye with DNA.

Bacterial active matter

Bacteria are among the oldest and most abundant species on Earth. Bacteria successfully colonize diverse habitats and play a significant role in the oxygen, carbon, and nitrogen cycles. They also form human and animal microbiota and may become sources of pathogens and a cause of many infectious diseases. Suspensions of motile bacteria constitute one of the most studied examples of active matter: a broad class of non-equilibrium systems converting energy from the environment (e.g., chemical energy of the nutrient) into mechanical motion. Concentrated bacterial suspensions, often termed active fluids, exhibit complex collective behavior, such as large-scale turbulent-like motion (so-called bacterial turbulence) and swarming. The activity of bacteria also affects the effective viscosity and diffusivity of the suspension. This work reports on the progress in bacterial active matter from the physics viewpoint. It covers the key experimental results, provides a critical assessment of major theoretical approaches, and addresses the effects of visco-elasticity, liquid crystallinity, and external confinement on collective behavior in bacterial suspensions.

Label-Free Detection and Spectrometrically Quantitative Analysis of the Cancer Biomarker CA125 Based on Lyotropic Chromonic Liquid Crystal

Compared with thermotropic liquid crystals (LCs), the biosensing potential of lyotropic chromonic liquid crystals (LCLCs), which are more biocompatible because of their hydrophilic nature, has scarcely been investigated. In this study, the nematic phase, a mesophase shared by both thermotropic LCs and LCLCs, of disodium cromoglycate (DSCG) was employed as the sensing mesogen in the LCLC-based biosensor. The biosensing platform was constructed so that the LCLC was homogeneously aligned by the planar anchoring strength of polyimide, but was disrupted in the presence of proteins such as bovine serum albumin (BSA) or the cancer biomarker CA125 captured by the anti-CA125 antibody, with the level of disturbance (and the optical signal thus produced) predominated by the amount of the analyte. The concentration- and wavelength-dependent optical response was analyzed by transmission spectrometry in the visible light spectrum with parallel or crossed polarizers. The concentration of CA125 can be quantified with spectrometrically derived parameters in a linear calibration curve. The limit of detection for both BSA and CA125 of the LCLC-based biosensor was superior or comparable to that of thermotropic LC-based biosensing techniques. Our results provide, to the best of our knowledge, the first evidence that LCLCs can be applied in spectrometrically quantitative biosensing.

Design of nematic liquid crystals to control microscale dynamics

The dynamics of small particles, both living such as swimming bacteria and inanimate, such as colloidal spheres, has fascinated scientists for centuries. If one could learn how to control and streamline their chaotic motion, that would open technological opportunities in the transformation of stored or environmental energy into systematic motion, with applications in micro-robotics, transport of matter, guided morphogenesis. This review presents an approach to command microscale dynamics by replacing an isotropic medium with a liquid crystal. Orientational order and associated properties, such as elasticity, surface anchoring, and bulk anisotropy, enable new dynamic effects, ranging from the appearance and propagation of particle-like solitary waves to self-locomotion of an active droplet. By using photoalignment, the liquid crystal can be patterned into predesigned structures. In the presence of the electric field, these patterns enable the transport of solid and fluid particles through nonlinear electrokinetics rooted in anisotropy of conductivity and permittivity. Director patterns command the dynamics of swimming bacteria, guiding their trajectories, polarity of swimming, and distribution in space. This guidance is of a higher level of complexity than a simple following of the director by rod-like microorganisms. Namely, the director gradients mediate hydrodynamic interactions of bacteria to produce an active force and collective polar modes of swimming. The patterned director could also be engraved in a liquid crystal elastomer. When an elastomer coating is activated by heat or light, these patterns produce a deterministic surface topography. The director gradients define an activation force that shapes the elastomer in a manner similar to the active stresses triggering flows in active nematics. The patterned elastomer substrates could be used to define the orientation of cells in living tissues. The liquid-crystal guidance holds a major promise in achieving the goal of commanding microscale active flows.

Time Dependent Lyotropic Chromonic Textures in Microfluidic Confinements

Nematic and columnar phases of lyotropic chromonic liquid crystals (LCLCs) have been long studied for their fundamental and applied prospects in material science and medical diagnostics. LCLC phases represent different self-assembled states of disc-shaped molecules, held together by noncovalent interactions that lead to highly sensitive concentration and temperature dependent properties. Yet, microscale insights into confined LCLCs, specifically in the context of confinement geometry and surface properties, are lacking. Here, we report the emergence of time dependent textures in static disodium cromoglycate (DSCG) solutions, confined in PDMS-based microfluidic devices. We use a combination of soft lithography, surface characterization, and polarized optical imaging to generate and analyze the confinement-induced LCLC textures and demonstrate that over time, herringbone and spherulite textures emerge due to spontaneous nematic (N) to columnar M-phase transition, propagating from the LCLC-PDMS interface into the LCLC bulk. By varying the confinement geometry, anchoring conditions, and the initial DSCG concentration, we can systematically tune the temporal dynamics of the N- to M-phase transition and textural behavior of the confined LCLC. Overall, the time taken to change from nematic to the characteristic M-phase textures decreased as the confinement aspect ratio (width/depth) increased. For a given aspect ratio, the transition to the M-phase was generally faster in degenerate planar confinements, relative to the transition in homeotropic confinements. Since the static molecular states register the initial conditions for LC flows, the time dependent textures reported here suggest that the surface and confinement effects—even under static conditions—could be central in understanding the flow behavior of LCLCs and the associated transport properties of this versatile material.

Increasing aspect ratio of particles suppresses buckling in shells formed by drying suspensions

Solvent evaporation in unpinned droplets of colloidal suspensions leads to the formation of porous shells which buckle under the pressure differential imposed by drying. We investigate the role of aspect ratio of rod-shaped particles in suppressing such buckling instabilities. Longer, thinner rods pack into permeable shells with consequently lower Darcy's pressure and thus avoid buckling.

Precise Control of Lyotropic Chromonic Liquid Crystal Alignment through Surface Topography

Many emerging applications, such as water-based electronic devices and biological sensors, require local control of anisotropic properties. Lyotropic chromonic liquid crystals (LCLCs) are an exciting class of materials, which are usually biocompatible and provide uniaxial anisotropy through a director field but, to date, remain difficult to control. In this work, we introduce a simple strategy to realize an arbitrary orientation of LCLCs director field in two dimensions (2D). Our alignment strategy relies on surface topographical micro/nanostructures fabricated by two-photon laser writing. We show that the alignment of LCLCs can be: (a) precisely controlled with a remarkable pixel resolution of 2.5 μm and (b) patterned into an arbitrary 2D alignment (e.g., +2 topological defect) by a pixelated design and arrangement of micro/nanostructures. Using a similar strategy, we achieve a patternable homeotropic alignment of LCLCs with nanopillars. Finally, we demonstrate that a self-assembled three-dimensional alignment of LCLCs can be obtained due to the versatility of our alignment strategy. Our demonstration of LCLC director field control, which is not only straightforward to achieve but also compatible with other conventional micro/nanofabrication techniques, will provide new opportunities for the manufacturing of LC-based electronic and biological devices.

Harnessing Medium Anisotropy To Control Active Matter

Active matter is a wide class of nonequilibrium systems consisting of interacting self-propelled agents transducing the energy stored in the environment into mechanical motion. Numerous examples range from microscopic cytoskeletal filaments and swimming organisms (bacteria and unicellular algae), synthetic catalytic nanomotors, colloidal self-propelled Janus particles, to macroscopic bird flocks, fish schools, and even human crowds. Active matter demonstrates a remarkable tendency toward self-organization and development of collective states with the long-range spatial order. Furthermore, active materials exhibit properties that are not present in traditional materials like plastics or ceramics: self-repair, shape change, and adaptation. A suspension of microscopic swimmers, such as motile bacteria or self-propelled colloids (active suspensions), is possibly the simplest and the most explored realization of active matter. Recent studies of active suspensions revealed a wealth of unexpected behaviors, from a dramatic reduction of the effective viscosity, enhanced mixing and self-diffusion, rectification of chaotic motion, to artificial rheotaxis (drift against the imposed flow) and cross-stream migration. To date, most of the studies of active matter are performed in isotropic suspending medium, like water with the addition of some "fuel", e.g., nutrient for bacteria or H₂O₂ for catalytic bimetallic AuPt nanorods. A highly structured anisotropic suspending medium represented by lyotropic liquid crystal (water-soluble) opens enormous opportunities to control and manipulate active matter. Liquid crystals exhibit properties intermediate between solid and liquids; they may flow like a liquid but respond to deformations as a solid due to a crystal-like orientation of molecules. Liquid crystals doped by a small amount of active component represent a new class of composite materials (living liquid crystals or LLCs) with unusual mechanical and optical properties. LLCs demonstrate a variety of highly organized dynamic collective states, spontaneous formation of dynamic textures of topological defects (singularities of local molecular orientation), controlled and reconfigurable transport of cargo particles, manipulation of individual trajectories of microswimmers, and many others. Besides insights into fundamental mechanisms governing active materials, living liquid crystals may have intriguing applications, such as the design of new classes of soft adaptive bioinspired materials capable to respond to physical and chemical stimuli, such as light, magnetic, and electric fields, mechanical shear, airborne pollutants, and bacterial toxins. This Account details the most recent developments in the field of LLCs and discusses how the anisotropy of liquid crystals can be harnessed to control and manipulate active materials.

Order parameters and time evolution of mesophases in the lyotropic chromonic liquid crystal Sunset Yellow FCF by DNMR

Uniaxial order parameters of the nematic and columnar mesophases in the lyotropic chromonic liquid crystal Sunset Yellow FCF have been determined from deuteron nuclear magnetic resonance, where random confinement of the system by the dispersion of aerosil nanoparticles has been performed to help obtain the angular dependent spectra. The long-time evolution study of the order parameters shows that the system requires tens of hours to stabilize after a deep change in temperature, in contrast with the very fast assembly process of the aggregates. Finally, the degree of order of the water molecules, forced by the uniaxial environment, has been determined.

Patterning of Lyotropic Chromonic Liquid Crystals by Photoalignment with Photonic Metamasks

Controlling supramolecular self-assembly in water-based solutions is an important problem of interdisciplinary character that impacts the development of many functional materials and systems. Significant progress in aqueous self-assembly and templating has been demonstrated by using lyotropic chromonic liquid crystals (LCLCs) as these materials show spontaneous orientational order caused by unidirectional stacking of plank-like molecules into elongated aggregates. In this work, it is demonstrated that the alignment direction of chromonic assemblies can be patterned into complex spatially-varying structures with very high micrometer-scale precision. The approach uses photoalignment with light beams that exhibit a spatially-varying direction of light polarization. The state of polarization is imprinted into a layer of photosensitive dye that is protected against dissolution into the LCLC by a liquid crystalline polymer layer. The demonstrated level of control over the spatial orientation of LCLC opens opportunities for engineering materials and devices for optical and biological applications.

Liquid crystal templating as an approach to spatially and temporally organise soft matter

Liquid crystal templating: an emerging technique to organise and control soft matter at multiple length scales.

Thermodynamically Anchoring-Frustrated Surface to Trigger Bulk Discontinuous Orientational Transition

Surface-specific liquid crystal (LC) nanostructures provide a unique platform for studying surface-wetting phenomena and also for technological applications. The most important studies on LC properties are related to bulk alignment, surface anchoring, and so on. Here, we study an LC system with a nematic liquid crystal (NLC) on a perfluoropolymer-coated substrate, in which a discontinuous bulk orientational transition has recently been found. Using free-energy analysis based on experimental results of the newly-conducted grazing-incidence X-ray diffraction (GI-XRD) measurements, we have confirmed a thermodynamic growth process of smectic liquid crystalline wetting nanosheets on the surface and successfully explained that a frustrated surface of planar and vertical anchoring states accompanied by an elastic energy cost kinetically triggers the bulk reorientation in the first-order manner. This interfacial bottom-up process may offer a general insight into how interfacial hierarchical molecular architectures alter the bulk properties of matter thermodynamically.

Directed peptide amphiphile assembly using aqueous liquid crystal templates in magnetic fields

An alignment technique based on the combination of magnetic fields and a liquid crystal (LC) template uses the advantages of both approaches: the magnetic fields offer non-contact methods that apply to all sample sizes and shapes, whilst the LC templates offer high susceptibilities. The combination introduces a route to control the spatial organization of materials with low intrinsic susceptibilities. We demonstrate that we can unidirectionally align one such material, peptide amphiphiles in water, on a centimeter scale at a tenfold lower magnetic field by using a lyotropic chromonic liquid crystal as a template. We can transform the aligned supramolecular assemblies into optically active π-conjugated polymers after photopolymerization. Lastly, by reducing the magnetic field strength needed for addressing these assemblies, we are able to create more complex structures by initiating self-assembly of our supramolecular materials under competing alignment forces between the magnetically induced alignment of the assemblies (with a positive diamagnetic anisotropy) and the elastic force dominated alignment of the template (with a negative diamagnetic anisotropy), which is directed orthogonally. Although the approach is still in its infancy and many critical parameters need optimization, we believe that it is a very promising technique to create tailor-made complex structures of (aqueous) functional soft matter.

Orientational Order of a Lyotropic Chromonic Liquid Crystal Measured by Polarized Raman Spectroscopy

Lyotropic chromonic liquid crystals are distinct from thermotropic nematics from a fundamental standpoint as the structure of the aggregating columns is a function of both the temperature and concentration. We report on the thermal evolution of orientational order parameters, both the second (=scalar) (⟨P200⟩ (=S)) and fourth (⟨P400⟩) order, of sunset yellow FCF aqueous solutions, measured using polarized Raman spectroscopy for different concentrations. The order parameter increases with the concentration, and their values are high in comparison with those of thermotropic liquid crystals. On the basis of Raman spectroscopy, we provide the strongest evidence yet that the hydrozone tautomer of SSY is the predominant form in aqueous solutions in the isotropic, nematic, and columnar phases, as well as what we believe to be the first measurements of (⟨P400⟩) for this system.

Chiral structures and defects of lyotropic chromonic liquid crystals induced by saddle-splay elasticity

An experimental and theoretical study of lyotropic chromonic liquid crystals (LCLCs) confined in cylinders with degenerate planar boundary conditions elucidates LCLC director configurations. When the Frank saddle-splay modulus is more than twice the twist modulus, the ground state adopts an inhomogeneous escaped-twisted configuration. Analysis of the configuration yields a large saddle-splay modulus, which violates Ericksen inequalities but not thermodynamic stability. Lastly, we observe point defects between opposite-handed domains, and we explain a preference for point defects over domain walls.

Self-organized assemblies of colloidal particles obtained from an aligned chromonic liquid crystal dispersion

The behavior of mono-disperse colloidal particles in a chromonic liquid crystal was investigated. Poly(methyl methacrylate) spherical particles with three different functionalizations, with and without surface charges, were utilized in the nematic and columnar phases of disodium cromoglycate solutions. The nematic phase was completely aligned parallel to the glass substrates by a simple rubbing technique, and the columnar phase showed regions of similar alignment. The behavior of the colloidal particles in the chromonic liquid crystal depended critically on the functionality, with bromine functionalized particles not dispersing at all, and cationic trimethylammonium and epoxy functionalized particles dispersing well in the isotropic phase of the liquid crystal. At the transition to the nematic and especially the columnar phase, the colloidal particles were expelled into the remaining isotropic phase. Since the columnar phase grew in parallel ribbons, the colloidal particles ended up in chain-like assemblies. Such behavior opens the possibility of producing patterned assemblies of colloidal particles by taking advantage of the self-organized structure of chromonic liquid crystals.

Elasticity, viscosity, and orientational fluctuations of a lyotropic chromonic nematic liquid crystal disodium cromoglycate

Using dynamic light scattering, we study orientational fluctuation modes in the nematic phase of a self-assembled lyotropic chromonic liquid crystal (LCLC) disodium cromoglycate and measure the Frank elastic moduli and viscosity coefficients. The elastic moduli of splay (K1) and bend (K3) are in the order of 10 pN while the twist modulus (K2) is an order of magnitude smaller. The splay constant K1 and the ratio K1/K3 both increase substantially as the temperature T decreases, which we attribute to the elongation of the chromonic aggregates at lower temperatures. The bend viscosity is comparable to that of thermotropic liquid crystals, while the splay and twist viscosities are several orders of magnitude larger. The temperature dependence of bend viscosity is weak. The splay and twist viscosities change exponentially with the temperature. In addition to the director modes, the fluctuation spectrum reveals an additional mode that is attributed to diffusion of structural defects in the column-like aggregates.

Chiral bipolar colloids from nonchiral chromonic liquid crystals

We demonstrate that high anisotropy of elastic constants of chromonic liquid crystals leads to a number of spontaneously twisted nematic director fields around colloidal particles in these non-chiral fluids. For spherical colloidal particles with surface inducing degenerate planar nematic ordering we observe that boojum defects at the particles' poles acquire twisted internal structure, extending up to three particle diameters along the rubbing direction of the cell. The twist handedness of the two boojum defects at the poles of the particle can be either the same or opposite, and we can switch the defects handedness by localized thermal microquenching. Numerical simulations confirm that the transitions into the distorted states are induced by lowering of the twist elastic constant, which results in two (meta)stable chiral configurations of the boojums, separated by an energy barrier much higher than the thermal energy. We show that boojum handedness can change the pairwise elastic interaction between the two particles positioned along the rubbing direction from repulsive to attractive.

Homeotropic alignment of lyotropic chromonic liquid crystals using noncovalent interactions

We report on the homeotropic alignment of lyotropic chromonic liquid crystals (LCLCs). Homeotropic anchoring of LCLCs is difficult to achieve, and this challenge has limited development of applications for LCLCs. In this work, homeotropic alignment is achieved using noncovalent interactions between the LCLC molecules and various alignment layers including graphene, parylene films, poly(methyl methacrylate) films, and fluoropolymer films. The LCLC molecules are unique in that they self-assemble via noncovalent interactions in water into elongated aggregates which, in turn, form nematic and columnar liquid crystal (LC) phases. Here we exploit these same noncovalent interactions to induce homeotropic anchoring of the nematic LCLC. Homeotropic alignment is confirmed by polarized optical microscopy and conoscopy. We also report on novel transient stripe textures that occur when an initial flow-induced planar alignment transforms into the equilibrium homeotropic alignment required by boundary conditions. An understanding of this behavior could be important for switching applications.

Transport of particles in liquid crystals

Colloidal particles in a liquid crystal (LC) behave very differently from their counterparts in isotropic fluids. Elastic nature of the orientational order and surface anchoring of the director cause long-range anisotropic interactions and lead to the phenomenon of levitation. The LC environment enables new mechanisms of particle transport that are reviewed in this work. Among them the motion of particles caused by gradients of the director, and effects in the electric field: backflow powered by director reorientations, dielectrophoresis in LC with varying dielectric permittivity and LC-enabled nonlinear electrophoresis with velocity that depends on the square of the applied electric field and can be directed differently from the field direction.

Stepwise heat-capacity change at an orientation transition in liquid crystals

During a phase transition in a bulk material, heat is exchanged with matter to balance the changes in the internal energy and the entropy of the system. Here we report on the thermal detection of a surface-mediated anchoring transition, a spontaneous and discontinuous orientation change between planar (P) and homeotropic (H) alignments within a single nematic phase by changing temperature. In this case a stepwise change in the heat flow, similar to a glass transition, is observed by means of high-resolution differential scanning calorimetry. We found that the jump in the specific heat does not depend on the sample volume, although the contribution of molecules in the vicinity of surfaces, which trigger the transition, becomes less with increasing the sample volume. This means that different molecular orientations, H and P, with respect to surfaces have different thermodynamic free energies. We also address why the anchoring transition occurs by means of grazing-incidence x-ray diffraction measurements, which clearly reveal the formation of quasismectic layers parallel to surfaces in the nematic phase.

Dynamic self-assembly of motile bacteria in liquid crystals

This paper reports an investigation of dynamical behaviors of motile rod-shaped bacteria within anisotropic viscoelastic environments defined by lyotropic liquid crystals (LCs). In contrast to passive microparticles (including non-motile bacteria) that associate irreversibly in LCs via elasticity-mediated forces, we report that motile Proteus mirabilis bacteria form dynamic and reversible multi-cellular assemblies when dispersed in a lyotropic LC. By measuring the velocity of the bacteria through the LC (8.8 ± 0.2 μm s(-1)) and by characterizing the ordering of the LC about the rod-shaped bacteria (tangential anchoring), we conclude that the reversibility of the inter-bacterial interaction emerges from the interplay of forces generated by the flagella of the bacteria and the elasticity of the LC, both of which are comparable in magnitude (tens of pN) for motile Proteus mirabilis cells. We also measured the dissociation process, which occurs in a direction determined by the LC, to bias the size distribution of multi-cellular bacterial complexes in a population of motile Proteus mirabilis relative to a population of non-motile cells. Overall, these observations and others reported in this paper provide insight into the fundamental dynamic behaviors of bacteria in complex anisotropic environments and suggest that motile bacteria in LCs are an exciting model system for exploration of principles for the design of active materials.

Planar anchoring strength and pitch measurements in achiral and chiral chromonic liquid crystals using 90-degree twist cells

Chromonic liquid crystals are formed by molecules that spontaneously assemble into anisotropic structures in water. The ordering unit is therefore a molecular assembly instead of a molecule as in thermotropic liquid crystals. Although it has been known for a long time that certain dyes, drugs, and nucleic acids form chromonic liquid crystals, only recently has enough knowledge been gained on how to control their alignment so that studies of their fundamental liquid crystal properties can be performed. In this article, a simple method for producing planar alignment of the nematic phase in chromonic liquid crystals is described, and this in turn is used to create twisted nematic structures of both achiral and chiral chromonic liquid crystals. The optics of 90-degree twist cells allows the anchoring strength to be measured in achiral systems, which for this alignment technique is quite weak, about 3×10(-7) J/m(2) for both disodium cromoglycate and Sunset Yellow FCF. The addition of a chiral amino acid to the system causes the chiral nematic phase to form, and similar optical measurements in 90-degree twist cells produce a measurement of the intrinsic pitch of the chiral nematic phase. From these measurements, the helical twisting power for L-alanine is found to be (1.1±0.4)×10(-2) μm(-1) wt%(-1) for 15 wt% disodium cromoglycate.

Morphogenesis of defects and tactoids during isotropic-nematic phase transition in self-assembled lyotropic chromonic liquid crystals

We explore the structure of nuclei and topological defects in the first-order phase transition between the nematic (N) and isotropic (I) phases in lyotropic chromonic liquid crystals (LCLCs). The LCLCs are formed by self-assembled molecular aggregates of various lengths and show a broad biphasic region. The defects emerge as a result of two mechanisms: (1) surface-anisotropy that endows each N nucleus ('tactoid') with topological defects thanks to preferential (tangential) orientation of the director at the closed I-N interface, and (2) Kibble mechanism with defects forming when differently oriented N tactoids merge with each other. Different scenarios of phase transition involve positive (N-in-I) and negative (I-in-N) tactoids with nontrivial topology of the director field and also multiply connected tactoid-in-tactoid configurations. The closed I-N interface limiting a tactoid shows a certain number of cusps; the lips of the interface on the opposite sides of the cusp make an angle different from π. The N side of each cusp contains a point defect-boojum. The number of cusps shows how many times the director becomes perpendicular to the I-N interface when one circumnavigates the closed boundary of the tactoid. We derive conservation laws that connect the number of cusps c to the topological strength m of defects in the N part of the simply connected and multiply connected tactoids. We demonstrate how the elastic anisotropy of the N phase results in non-circular shape of the disclination cores. A generalized Wulff construction is used to derive the shape of I and N tactoids as a function of I-N interfacial tension anisotropy in the approximation of frozen director field of various topological charges m. The complex shapes and structures of tactoids and topological defects demonstrate an important role of surface anisotropy in morphogenesis of phase transitions in liquid crystals.

Evolution of the discontinuous anchoring transition under an electric field

Anchoring transition (ATr), resulting in the orientational change of liquid crystal (LC) molecules at surfaces with temperature variation, is shown to be essentially affected by the application of an electric field (E field). By combining defocusing polarizing microscopy with retardation measurement, a detailed investigation of the molecular orientational change in the vicinity of ATr during a cooling process under an E field was performed. Two important conclusions can be made from our observations: (i) the ATr temperature exhibits a large downshift in the presence of an E field; (ii) the orientational change is always discontinuous from a planar (P) state to a homeotropic (H) state. If the applied E field is below the Freedericksz transition, P and H states are uniform, whereas the surface H state is influenced by the tilt in the bulk due to negative dielectric anisotropy, resulting in a bent-splay deformed state.

Elasticity of lyotropic chromonic liquid crystals probed by director reorientation in a magnetic field

Using a magnetic Frederiks transition technique, we measure the temperature and concentration dependences of splay K1, twist K2, and bend K3 elastic constants for the lyotropic chromonic liquid crystal sunset yellow formed through noncovalent reversible aggregation of organic molecules in water. K1 and K3 are comparable to each other and are an order of magnitude higher than K2. At higher concentrations and lower temperatures, K1 and the ratios K1/K3 and K1/K2 increase, which is attributed to elongation of self-assembled lyotropic chromonic liquid crystal aggregates, a feature not found in conventional thermotropic and lyotropic liquid crystals formed by covalently bound units of a fixed length.

Condensation of self-assembled lyotropic chromonic liquid crystal sunset yellow in aqueous solutions crowded with polyethylene glycol and doped with salt

We use optical and fluorescence microscopy, densitometry, cryo-transmission electron microscopy (cryo-TEM), spectroscopy, and synchrotron X-ray scattering to study the phase behavior of the reversible self-assembled chromonic aggregates of an anionic dye Sunset Yellow (SSY) in aqueous solutions crowded with an electrically neutral polymer polyethylene glycol (PEG) and doped with the salt NaCl. PEG causes the isotropic SSY solutions to condense into a liquid-crystalline region with a high concentration of SSY aggregates, coexisting with a PEG-rich isotropic (I) region. PEG added to the homogeneous nematic (N) phase causes separation into the coexisting N and I domains; the SSY concentration in the N domains is higher than the original concentration of PEG-free N phase. Finally, addition of PEG to the highly concentrated homogeneous N phase causes separation into the coexisting columnar hexagonal (C) phase and I phase. This behavior can be qualitatively explained by the depletion (excluded volume) effects that act at two different levels: at the level of aggregate assembly from monomers and short aggregates and at the level of interaggregate packing. We also show a strong effect of a monovalent salt NaCl on phase diagrams that is different for high and low concentrations of SSY. Upon the addition of salt, dilute I solutions of SSY show appearance of the condensed N domains, but the highly concentrated C phase transforms into a coexisting I and N domains. We suggest that the salt-induced screening of electric charges at the surface of chromonic aggregates leads to two different effects: (a) increase of the scission energy and the contour length of aggregates and (b) decrease of the persistence length of SSY aggregates.