Self-assembly via branching morphologies in nematic liquid-crystal nanocomposites

Abstract

We demonstrate that the morphological diversity in liquid-crystal hybrid systems is much richer than previously anticipated. More importantly, we reveal the existence of a dual mechanism for self-assembly of nanoparticles via morphological instabilities at phase boundaries. Using numerical simulations, we study the growth of isolated nematic droplets in an isotropic liquid crystal (LC) doped with nanoparticles (NPs) and provide insight into the nature of microstructure evolution in LC hybrids. Our work expands the numerically accessible time and length scales in these systems, capturing morphologies which develop under the competition of nonequilibrium elastic interactions, diffusive instabilities mediated by NP transport, and the anisotropy of the nematic field. By mapping nematic morphologies, we also propose a methodology for estimating various important LC material parameters that are difficult to obtain experimentally.

Theoretical Platform for Liquid-Crystalline Self-Assembly of Collagen-Based Biomaterials

“…For those parameters which have not been documented for solutions of tropocollagen, the common values are used instead. Readers are referred to Khadem and Rey [20], Gobeaux et al [21], De Luca and Rey [61], Gurevich et al [62], Das and Rey [63], and De Luca and Rey [64] for details of parameter selection.…”

“…In addition tof mxing which is capable of describing phase separation and an order-disorder phase transition, for constructing the total free energy of mesogenic solutions, the contributions of gradients should be taken to account [62][63][64]:…”

Structure and Pattern Formation in Biological Liquid Crystals: Insights From Theory and Simulation of Self-Assembly and Self-Organization

“…The coupling of phase ordering and phase separation has been widely studied in various mesophase-solvent-nanoparticle blends and self-selected textures and defects in spinodal and nucleation and growth modes have been characterized and validated (Das and Rey, 2004;Das and Rey, 2005;Das and Rey, 2006;Matsuyama, 2008;Soule and Rey, 2012;Milette et al, 2013;Soulé and Rey, 2013;Gurevich et al, 2014;Soule and Rey, 2019;Khadem and Rey, 2021). In contrast with this case, in open systems loss of solvent, as in dehydration, is dictated or coupled to external sinks and not to equilibrium thermodynamic driving forces.…”

“…i) It has been used to simulate near equilibrium and flow phenomena, using stable variational-informed schemes that provide consistent description of the Q-tensor, composition and accurately resolve interfacial physics (Zhao et al, 2016;Qiu et al, 2021). ii) Phase ordering and phase separation in liquid crystal nanocomposites (Gurevich et al, 2014;Gurevich et al, 2017) leading to dendritic patterns have been resolved accurately using adaptive schemes that resolve nematic order, concentration, as well as nanoparticle positional ordering. (c) AI-based modeling.…”

Rate of Entropy Production in Evolving Interfaces and Membranes under Astigmatic Kinematics: Shape Evolution in Geometric-Dissipation Landscapes

“…The influence of these intrinsic geometric attributes ( ) can be seen in interfacial transport and rheology [ 9 ], the preferred configuration of surfaces for proteins [ 10 ] and in dendritic microstructures during coarsening [ 11 , 12 ], to name a few. Shape and curvedness affect membrane elasticity [ 13 ], the rate of growth of cell tissues [ 14 ] and particle behaviours [ 15 ].…”