Rods in a lyotropic chromonic liquid crystal: emergence of chirality, symmetry-breaking alignment, and caged angular diffusion

Ettinger, Sophie; Dietrich, Clarissa F.; Mishra, Chandan K.; Miksch, Cornelia; Beller, Daniel A.; Collings, Peter J.; Yodh, Arjun G.

doi:10.1039/d1sm01209f

Cited by 3 publications

(1 citation statement)

References 40 publications

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“…Distortions induced by such particles could make these materials difficult to align. A recent study suspends rod-like particles in a lyotropic chromonic liquid crystal, and finds an anomalous twisted alignment of the rods with respect to the director field [25]. We speculate that the spontaneous twist discussed here may be involved in that experiment.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 49%

Violation of Ericksen inequalities in lyotropic chromonic liquid crystals

Cheng¹,

Selinger²

2022

Preprint

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By analyzing elastic theory for nematic liquid crystals, we distinguish three regimes of elastic constants. In one regime, the Ericksen inequalities are satisfied, and the ground state of the director field is uniform. In a second regime, certain necessary inequalities are violated, and the free energy is thermodynamically unstable. Between those possibilities, there is an intermediate regime, where the Ericksen inequalities are violated but the system is still stable. Remarkably, lyotropic chromonic liquid crystals are in the intermediate regime.We investigate the nonuniform structure of the director field in that regime, show that it depends sensitively on system geometry, and discuss the implications for lyotropic chromonic liquid crystals.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 49%

Violation of Ericksen inequalities in lyotropic chromonic liquid crystals

Cheng¹,

Selinger²

2022

Preprint

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Violation of Ericksen Inequalities in Lyotropic Chromonic Liquid Crystals

Cheng

Selinger

2022

J Elast

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Flow-induced periodic chiral structures in an achiral nematic liquid crystal

Zhang,

Wang,

Zhou

et al. 2024

Nat Commun

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Supramolecular chirality typically originates from either chiral molecular building blocks or external chiral stimuli. Generating chirality in achiral systems in the absence of a chiral input, however, is non-trivial and necessitates spontaneous mirror symmetry breaking. Achiral nematic lyotropic chromonic liquid crystals have been reported to break mirror symmetry under strong surface or geometric constraints. Here we describe a previously unrecognised mechanism for creating chiral structures by subjecting the material to a pressure-driven flow in a microfluidic cell. The chirality arises from a periodic double-twist configuration of the liquid crystal and manifests as a striking stripe pattern. We show that the mirror symmetry breaking is triggered at regions of flow-induced biaxial-splay configurations of the director field, which are unstable to small perturbations and evolve into lower energy structures. The simplicity of this unique pathway to mirror symmetry breaking can shed light on the requirements for forming macroscopic chiral structures.

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Rods in a lyotropic chromonic liquid crystal: emergence of chirality, symmetry-breaking alignment, and caged angular diffusion

Abstract: Surprising symmetry-breaking behaviors and chiral director configurations surrounding rod-like particles suspended in a lyotropic chromonic liquid crystal.

Cited by 3 publications

References 40 publications

Violation of Ericksen inequalities in lyotropic chromonic liquid crystals

Violation of Ericksen inequalities in lyotropic chromonic liquid crystals

Violation of Ericksen Inequalities in Lyotropic Chromonic Liquid Crystals

Flow-induced periodic chiral structures in an achiral nematic liquid crystal

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