Helical Particles Research Articles

Stochastic approach to evaluate the shielding effectiveness of composite materials loaded with randomly oriented helices

AbstractThis letter proposes a method to calculate the expected value of the shielding effectiveness of a composite material slab, including a planar array of randomly oriented metal helices as chiral particles. Helix‐loaded concrete composite materials are advantageous for electromagnetic interference shielding applications. While planar periodic arrays of chiral particles have been extensively studied, this research discusses a non‐periodic array in which the helical particle axis direction in each unit cell is random. This method estimates the slab's shielding effectiveness by defining it as a random variable expanded into three independent basis‐like functions. Comparisons with full‐wave simulations show acceptable agreement across a wide frequency range, with a total RMS error of 0.9 dB. This study additionally includes an experimental measurement to validate the proposed method. This technique provides the initial step in developing an analytical method to analyse and estimate the transmitted power of general structures using a stochastic approach. Examples include concrete composites containing randomly distributed helical steel particles with significant shielding effectiveness.

A lightweight concrete composite material with improved EMI shielding by using a chiral particle array

This paper proposes a structure for concrete composite materials for electromagnetic interference shielding applications. It comprises an array of helical-shaped conductive particles as chiral additives. Unlike the previous studies using large quantities of conductive additives, this study provides a lightweight concrete composite due to the utilization of a small number of additives with a high level of shielding effectiveness in a wide frequency range. The heart of the proposed structure lies in leveraging the evanescent wave propagation in a circular waveguide, resulting in considerable shielding effectiveness. Under particular conditions, the helical particles can imitate a below-cutoff cylindrical waveguide and its dominant mode surface current on the helical wire. This phenomenon significantly attenuates the transmitted power from the array of helical particles in its resonance frequency range. Besides presenting the composition that exploits the magnetoelectric properties of the particles, this paper compares it with a traditional concrete composite, including randomly distributed sinusoidal steel rods. This second approach is examined using both experimental measurement and full-wave simulation methods. The results of this study indicate that the appropriate geometry of the conductive additives, in this case, chiral particles, and their arrangement in a regular array rather than a random distribution can enhance the efficiency of the conductive additives. This idea paves the way for more robust, efficient, and lightweight concrete composite materials, thanks to the recent advances in modern civil engineering manufacturing methods.

Molecular shape, elastic constants and spontaneous twist in chiral and achiral nematics: insights from a generalised Maier–Saupe framework

ABSTRACT Ordinary nematic liquid crystals have a uniform director field as ground state. However, there are relevant examples of spontaneously twisted nematic states, not only in chiral, but also in achiral materials. Different twist configurations can be found, with the director modulation along the twist axis, as in the cholesteric and in the twist-bend nematic phase, or perpendicular to it, as in blue phases and in skyrmion structures. Here, we develop a generalised Maier–Saupe theory to calculate the thermodynamic and elastic properties, included saddle-splay, of nematics made of particles whose shape can be described as a distorted rod. This turns out to be a powerful approach for screening the relation between the molecular shape and the formation of modulated nematic phases. Application to the paradigmatic models of banana-shaped and helical particles allows us to identify the role of distinct shape features, such as curvature and chirality, and the distinct mechanisms by which these promote twisted configurations.

Stability of the chiral crystal phase and breakdown of the cholesteric phase in mixtures of active-passive chiral rods.

In this study, we aim to explore the effect of chirality on the phase behavior of active helical particles driven by two-temperature scalar activity. We first calculate the equation of state of soft helical particles of various intrinsic chiralities using molecular dynamics (MD) simulation. In equilibrium, the emergence of various liquid crystal (LC) phases such as nematic (N), cholesteric , smectic (Sm) and crystal (K) crucially depends on the presence of walls that induce planar alignment. Next, we introduce activity through the two-temperature model: keep increasing the temperature of half of the helical particles (labeled as 'hot' particles) while maintaining the temperature of the other half at a lower value (labeled as 'cold' particles). Starting from a homogeneous isotropic (I) phase, we find the emergence of 2-TIPS: two temperature-induced phase separations between the hot and cold particles. We also observe that the cold particles undergo an ordering transition to various LC phases even in the absence of a wall. This observation reveals that the hot-cold interface in the active system plays the role of a wall in the equilibrium system by inducing an alignment direction for the cold particles. However, in the case of a cholesteric phase, we observe that activity destabilizes the phase by inducing smectic ordering in the cold zone while an isotropic structure in the hot zone. The smectic ordering in the cold zone eventually transforms to a chiral crystal phase with high enough activity.

Investigating the Insertion Mechanism of Cell-Penetrating Peptide Penetratin into Cell Membranes: Implications for Targeted Drug Delivery

The cell-penetrating peptide (CPP) penetratin (PEN) has garnered attention for its potential to enter tumor cells. However, its translocation mechanism and lack of selectivity remain debated. This study investigated PEN’s insertion into healthy cells (H-) and cancer cells (C-) using micromolar concentrations and various techniques. Raman spectroscopy was used to determine PEN’s location in the lipid bilayer at different lipid-to-peptide ratios. Dynamic light scattering (DLS) and zeta potential analysis were used to measure the lipid–PEN complex’s size and charge. The results showed helical PEN particles directly inserted into C- membranes at a ratio of 110, while aggregated particles stayed on H- surfaces. Raman spectroscopy and scanning electron microscopy confirmed PEN insertion in C- membranes. Zeta potential studies revealed highly negative charges for PEN–C- complexes and neutral charges for PEN–H- complexes at pH 6.8. C- integrity remained unchanged at a ratio of 110. Specific lipid-to-peptide ratios with dipalmitoylphosphatidylserine (DPPS) were crucial for direct insertion. These results provide valuable insights into CPP efficacy for targeted drug delivery in cancer cells, considering membrane composition and lipid-to-peptide ratios.

Janus helices: From fully attractive to hard helices.

The phase diagram of hard helices differs from its hard rods counterpart by the presence of chiral "screw" phases stemming from the characteristic helical shape, in addition to the conventional liquid crystal phases also found for rod-like particles. Using extensive Monte Carlo and Molecular Dynamics simulations, we study the effect of the addition of a short-range attractive tail representing solvent-induced interactions to a fraction of the sites forming the hard helices, ranging from a single-site attraction to fully attractive helices for a specific helical shape. Different temperature regimes exist for different fractions of the attractive sites, as assessed in terms of the relative Boyle temperatures, that are found to be rather insensitive to the specific shape of the helical particle. The temperature range probed by the present study is well above the corresponding Boyle temperatures, with the phase behaviour still mainly entropically dominated and with the existence and location of the various liquid crystal phases only marginally affected. The pressure in the equation of state is found to decrease upon increasing the fraction of attractive beads and/or on lowering the temperature at fixed volume fraction, as expected on physical grounds. All screw phases are found to be stable within the considered range of temperatures with the smectic phase becoming more stable on lowering the temperature. By contrast, the location of the transition lines do not display a simple dependence on the fraction of attractive beads in the considered range of temperatures.

Asymmetric bistability of chiral particle orientation in viscous shear flows.

The migration of helical particles in viscous shear flows plays a crucial role in chiral particle sorting. Attaching a nonchiral head to a helical particle leads to a rheotactic torque inducing particle reorientation. This phenomenon is responsible for bacterial rheotaxis observed for flagellated bacteria as Escherichia coli in shear flows. Here, we use a high-resolution microprinting technique to fabricate microparticles with controlled and tunable chiral shape consisting of a spherical head and helical tails of various pitch and handedness. By observing the fully time-resolved dynamics of these microparticles in microfluidic channel flow, we gain valuable insights into chirality-induced orientation dynamics. Our experimental model system allows us to examine the effects of particle elongation, chirality, and head heaviness for different flow rates on the orientation dynamics, while minimizing the influence of Brownian noise. Through our model experiments, we demonstrate the existence of asymmetric bistability of the particle orientation perpendicular to the flow direction. We quantitatively explain the particle equilibrium orientations as a function of particle properties, initial conditions and flow rates, as well as the time-dependence of the reorientation dynamics through a theoretical model. The model parameters are determined using boundary element simulations, and excellent agreement with experiments is obtained without any adjustable parameters. Our findings lead to a better understanding of chiral particle transport and bacterial rheotaxis and might allow the development of targeted delivery applications.

Helical particle manipulation based on power-exponent-phase acoustic vortices generated by a sector transducer array

The characteristics of traditional acoustic vortices (AVs) were verified by the cross-sectional axisymmetric pressure distributions with perfect phase spirals around the center pressure null. In order to generate a non-axisymmetric pressure distribution, the concept of power-exponent-phase was first introduced into the formation of AV beams, named “power-exponent-phase acoustic vortices (PAVs)” in this paper. Based on a ring-array of sector transducers, the helical distribution of the low-pressure valley in cross-sections of PAVs, which enables particles to move from a distant position to the center low-potential well along a certain spiral passageway, was proved theoretically. The particle manipulation behavior for PAVs with a power order of 2 is numerically modeled and experimentally confirmed. The results show that PAVs with a non-axisymmetric spiral pressure distribution can be used to realize the directional transport of particles in an enlarged scope, suggesting prospective application potential in biomedical engineering.

ПОЛЯРИЗАЦІЙНО ТА ЧАСТОТНО СЕЛЕКТИВНІ ХАРАКТЕРИСТИКИ ХІРАЛЬНОЇ ПОВЕРХНІ, ЩО СКЛАДАЄТЬСЯ З ПЕРІОДИЧНО РОЗТАШОВАНИХ ДІЕЛЕКТРИЧНИХ КВАДРАТНИХ СПІРАЛЕЙ

Subject and Purpose. The present study is concerned with the linearly polarized electromagnetic wave transmission through a chiral metasurface composed of periodically assembled square dielectric helices. We expect that the metasurface of the kind has a wider range of functional capabilities to transform a polarized wave into a cross-polarized one when compared to a similar metasurface composed of metal helices. Methods and Methodology. To find the scattering coefficients of the considered structure, the well-established method of integral functionals is followed. A set of volume integral equations in the vectorial form is solved for the equivalent electric and magnetic polarization currents of the analyzed periodic layer. A distinctive feature of the method is that the internal electromagnetic fields of the structure are initially found, whence the fields scattered by this structure are sought. The equations are discretized in terms of integral functionals related to the polarization currents and through the use of the double Floquet–Fourier series expansion technique. Results. It has been found that the metasurface transmission coefficients depend critically on the number of bars making the square helical particle. In the case of an even bar number, the chiral metasurface exhibits the same transmission coefficients for co- polarized field components in the event that linearly x- and y-polarized waves are incident. For cross-polarized field components, the transmission coefficients differ and can reach peak values at different frequencies. Finally, transmission coefficients of these polarizers have been investigated versus dimensions of helice-making bars. Conclusion. A wide variety of transmission properties observed in the metasurfaces make them particularly attractive for use in polarization converting and separating devices. The metasurface can feature dichroic asymmetric transmission and be used as a dichroic filter with polarization transformation. It can be put to use in differential phase sections and, also, as an effective dichroic cross-polarization converter (twist polarizer)

Stimuli-responsive helical polymeric particles with amplified circularly polarized luminescence

We fabricated stimuli-responsive solid particles with amplified circularly polarized luminescence based on a cis-transoidal helix, temperature-responsive and pH-responsive CPL properties.

Approximate method for helical particle trajectory reconstruction in high energy physics experiments

High energy physics experiments, in particular experiments at the LHC, require the reconstruction of charged particle trajectories. Methods of reconstructing such trajectories have been known for decades, yet the applications at High Luminosity LHC require this reconstruction to be fast enough to be suitable for online event filtering. A particle traversing the detector volume leaves signals in active detector elements from which the trajectory is reconstructed. If the detector is submerged in a uniform magnetic field that trajectory is approximately helical. Since a collision event results in the production of many particles, especially at high luminosities, the first phase of trajectory reconstruction is the formation of candidate trajectories composed of a small subset of detector measurements that are then subject of resource intensive precise track parameters estimation. In this paper, we suggest a new approach that could be used to perform this classification. The proposed procedure utilizes the z coordinate in the longitudinal direction in addition to the x, y coordinates in the plane perpendicular to the direction of the magnetic field. The suggested algorithm works equally well for helical trajectories with different proximities to the beamline which is beneficial when searching for products of particles with longer lifetimes.

Hydrodynamically induced helical particle drift due to patterned surfaces

Advances in microfabrication enable the tailoring of surfaces to achieve optimal sorting, mixing, and focusing of complex particulate suspensions in microfluidic devices. Corrugated surfaces have proved to be a powerful tool to manipulate particle motion for a variety of applications, yet the fundamental physical mechanism underlying the hydrodynamic coupling of the suspended particles and surface topography has remained elusive. Here, we study the hydrodynamic interactions between sedimenting spherical particles and nearby corrugated surfaces, whose corrugations are tilted with respect to gravity. Our experiments show three-dimensional, helical particle trajectories with an overall drift along the corrugations, which agree quantitatively with our analytical perturbation theory. The theoretical predictions reveal that the interaction of the disturbance flows, induced by the particle motion, with the corrugations generates locally a transverse anisotropy of the pressure field, which explains the helical dynamics and particle drift. We demonstrate that this dynamical behavior is generic for various surface shapes, including rectangular, sinusoidal, and triangular corrugations, and we identify surface characteristics that produce an optimal particle drift. Our findings reveal a universal feature inherent to particle transport near patterned surfaces and provide fundamental insights for future microfluidic applications that aim to enhance the focusing or sorting of particulate suspensions.

Phoretic self-propulsion of helical active particles

Chemically active colloids self-propel by catalysing the decomposition of molecular ‘fuel’ available in the surrounding solution. If the various molecular species involved in the reaction have distinct interactions with the colloid surface, and if the colloid has some intrinsic asymmetry in its surface chemistry or geometry, there will be phoretic flows in an interfacial layer surrounding the particle, leading to directed motion. Most studies of chemically active colloids have focused on spherical, axisymmetric ‘Janus’ particles, which (in the bulk, and in absence of fluctuations) simply move in a straight line. For particles with a complex (non-spherical and non-axisymmetric) geometry, the dynamics can be much richer. Here, we consider chemically active helices. Via numerical calculations and slender body theory, we study how the translational and rotational velocities of the particle depend on geometry and the distribution of catalytic activity over the particle surface. We confirm the recent finding of Katsamba et al. (J. Fluid Mech., vol. 898, 2020, p. A24) that both tangential and circumferential concentration gradients contribute to the particle velocity. The relative importance of these contributions has a strong impact on the motion of the particle. We show that, by a judicious choice of the particle design parameters, one can suppress components of angular velocity that are perpendicular to the screw axis, or even select for purely ‘sideways’ translation of the helix.

A Replicating Viral Vector Greatly Enhances Accumulation of Helical Virus-Like Particles in Plants.

The production of plant helical virus-like particles (VLPs) via plant-based expression has been problematic with previous studies suggesting that an RNA scaffold may be necessary for their efficient production. To examine this, we compared the accumulation of VLPs from two potexviruses, papaya mosaic virus and alternanthera mosaic virus (AltMV), when the coat proteins were expressed from a replicating potato virus X- based vector (pEff) and a non-replicating vector (pEAQ-HT). Significantly greater quantities of VLPs could be purified when pEff was used. The pEff system was also very efficient at producing VLPs of helical viruses from different virus families. Examination of the RNA content of AltMV and tobacco mosaic virus VLPs produced from pEff revealed the presence of vector-derived RNA sequences, suggesting that the replicating RNA acts as a scaffold for VLP assembly. Cryo-EM analysis of the AltMV VLPs showed they had a structure very similar to that of authentic potexvirus particles. Thus, we conclude that vectors generating replicating forms of RNA, such as pEff, are very efficient for producing helical VLPs.

Enhancing Capsid Proteins Capacity in Plant Virus-Vector Interactions and Virus Transmission.

Vector transmission of plant viruses is basically of two types that depend on the virus helper component proteins or the capsid proteins. A number of plant viruses belonging to disparate groups have developed unusual capsid proteins providing for interactions with the vector. Thus, cauliflower mosaic virus, a plant pararetrovirus, employs a virion associated p3 protein, the major capsid protein, and a helper component for the semi-persistent transmission by aphids. Benyviruses encode a capsid protein readthrough domain (CP-RTD) located at one end of the rod-like helical particle, which serves for the virus transmission by soil fungal zoospores. Likewise, the CP-RTD, being a minor component of the luteovirus icosahedral virions, provides for persistent, circulative aphid transmission. Closteroviruses encode several CPs and virion-associated proteins that form the filamentous helical particles and mediate transmission by aphid, whitefly, or mealybug vectors. The variable strategies of transmission and evolutionary ‘inventions’ of the unusual capsid proteins of plant RNA viruses are discussed.

Investigation of fumed silica as a platinum support for methanol oxidation reaction

In this study, we have examined fumed silica (FS) as a support material for platinum (Pt) catalyst used in methanol fuel cells for the first time. For this purpose, the carbon paste electrode (CPE) was modified with different amounts of FS to prepare CPE/xFS (x: 3, 6, 9, 12%), and then these electrodes were electrochemically coated with Pt nanoparticles to obtain CPE/xFS@Pt. The presence of FS as a support material prominently increased the methanol oxidation activity of the prepared electrodes. The highest activity was obtained in the presence of 12% FS. Characterizations were performed with cyclic voltammetry (CV), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), energy-dispersive X-ray (EDX), X-ray diffraction (XRD), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), and contact angle measurements. SEM and EDX analyses revealed that FS and electroplated-Pt homogeneously distributed on the electrode surface. SEM analyses also showed that the synthesized Pt nanoparticles formed a brain-like structure having inter-connected helical particles. The presence of FS increased the electron transfer rate, the effective surface area, and the hydrophilicity of the electrode surface. The CPE/12FS@Pt preserved its methanol oxidation activity for long periods. The results showed that FS was a highly efficient and durable supporting material for Pt-based catalysts which were used in direct methanol fuel cells.

Electromagnetic analysis of wires with joints using a hybrid meshless-moments technique

This paper presents a fast and accurate hybrid method to analyze radiation of and scattering from conducting wire structures. The proposed technique is based on meshless method (MlM) and method of moments (MoM). First, the electric field integral equation (EFIE) is broken into two parts, integral and differential parts. In this paper, we use smooth meshless basis functions in evaluating the differential part and conventionally employ pulse basis functions in estimation of the integral part, given by closed-form expressions. We call this new technique, advanced meshless method (AMM) and use it to analyze wire structures such as helix and straight dipole antennas. Next, we investigate structures that include two wires connecting at a joint point, such as a helical dipole antenna that is composed of a quarter-wavelength dipole, connected to two helical wires at both its ends and also a folded dipole antenna that has two half-wavelength dipoles connected by two small half ring wires. We propose a new hybrid meshless-moments technique (MMT) which treats separate wire parts like the helical wire, half ring wire, and straight dipole parts by the AMM and the joint or connection parts by the MoM. The interactions between different parts are then taken into account by calculation of the near-field integral equations. Various comparisons between AMM and MMT results with those of a conventional MoM confirm that while accuracy is fixed the AMM and MMT are at least 10 times faster than MoM. The main feature of the hybrid MMT method is its computational efficiency in analyzing electrically large problems. As an example, extinction cross section of a chaff cloud composed of a large number of randomly placed and oriented helical particles as a function of frequency is efficiently computed by the hybrid MMT to show its capability in fast and accurate calculation of a complex medium dispersion.

Chiral metasurfaces formed by 3D-printed square helices: A flexible tool to manipulate wave polarization

The transmission of linearly and circularly polarized waves is studied both theoretically and experimentally for chiral metasurfaces formed by arrays of metallic square helices. The helical particles of the metasurfaces are constructed of rectangular bars manufactured by direct three-dimensional printing in solid metals. The transmittance of the metasurface is found to depend critically on the number of bars forming the square helical particles. In the case of an even number of bars, the chiral metasurface exhibits identical co-polarized transmittance of orthogonal linearly polarized waves, which are characterized by a dual-band asymmetric transmission. For an odd number of bars, the metasurface provides the same cross-polarization conversion for any polarization orientation of the incident field and thus serves as a polarization-independent twist polarizer. Finally, the transmittance of this polarizer is investigated with respect to the dimensions of the square helices. The investigated chiral metasurfaces are characterized by strong broadband circular dichroism regardless of the number of bars in the helical particles. The wide variety of transmission properties observed in the metasurfaces makes them particularly attractive for use in polarization conversion and separation devices.

Helical solutes orientationally ordered in anisotropic media composed of helical particles: Formulation of a mean torque potential sensitive to P and M chirality as a tool for the assignment of the absolute configuration of enantiomers

In this paper, a chirality-sensitive effective orientational potential is, for the first time, proposed. It describes, within the Molecular Field approximation, different solute-solvent ordering interactions, according to the P (clockwise) or M (counterclockwise) nature of helical particles dissolved in uniaxial anisotropic solvents composed, in their turn, of helical P or M particles. By making use of Monte Carlo-simulated order parameters, it is shown that the model is, in principle, able to lead to the absolute enantiorecognition of the unknown chirality of the helical solute particles. This makes it a possible interesting tool for exploiting NMR anisotropic observables in order to achieve the absolute enantiomer assignment of chiral helical solutes.

3D-printed chiral metasurface as a dichroic dual-band polarization converter.

We propose a novel design of a 3D chiral metasurface behaving as a spatial polarization converter with asymmetric transmission. The metasurface is made of a lattice of metallic one-and-a-half-pitch helical particles. The proposed metasurface exhibits a dual-band asymmetric transmission accompanied by the effect of complete polarization conversion. Regarding circularly polarized waves, the metasurface demonstrates a strong circular dichroism. A prototype of the metasurface is manufactured for the quasi-optic experiment by using a 3D printing technique utilizing a cobalt-chromium alloy, which exhibits good performances against thermal fatigue and corrosion at high temperatures.