Abstract
Liquid crystals are able to transform a local molecular interaction into a macroscopic change of state, making them a valuable “smart” material. Here, we investigate a novel polymeric amphiphile as a candidate for molecular triggering of liquid crystal droplets in aqueous background. Using microscopy equipped with crossed polarizers and optical tweezers, we find that the monomeric amphiphile is able to trigger both a fast phase change and then a subsequent transition from nematic to isotropic. We next include sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS), a standard surfactant, with the novel amphiphilic molecules to test phase transitioning when both were present. As seen previously, we find that the activity of SDS at the surface can result in configuration changes with hysteresis. We find that the presence of the polymeric amphiphile reverses the hysteresis previously observed during such transitions. This work demonstrates a variety of phase and configuration changes of liquid crystals that can be controlled by multiple exogenous chemical triggers.
Highlights
Academic Editors: Pradip K.Liquid crystals (LCs) are a material system that is responsive to stimuli such as electric and magnetic fields [1,2], changes in pH [3,4], protein binding [5,6], light [7,8,9], and temperature [10,11]
Prior work was performed in a two-dimensional configuration, but here we examine the effects of the oligomeric amphiphiles in a three-dimensional system in the form of liquid crystal droplets made from 4-cyano-40 -pentylbiphenyl (5CB) [12,14]
Our initial experiments seek to determine the phase of liquid crystal droplets in the presence of a novel oligomeric amphiphile, PEG-C10, using the following static concentrations: 37.5, 75, 200, 375, and 600 μM
Summary
Liquid crystals (LCs) are a material system that is responsive to stimuli such as electric and magnetic fields [1,2], changes in pH [3,4], protein binding [5,6], light [7,8,9], and temperature [10,11]. The selforganization and long-range elasticity enable liquid crystal systems to sense environmental fluctuations and react —all without a brain or a central communication network. Such responsive materials are inherently more secure than those that connect to a network, since their sensing and responding occur locally. Autonomous materials of this sort that need not interact with a computer or talk to the cloud to perform a task are promising materials of the future
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