Category Ranking
98%
Total Visits
921
Avg Visit Duration
2 minutes
Citations
20
Article Abstract
Focal conic domains are defects characteristic of layered liquid crystal phases. Their association can build flowers where petals are the ellipses of the Dupin cyclides involved in these defects. We report here the observation of focal conic flowers in cholesteric droplets sessile on a glass surface and surrounded by glycerol. The observation of the droplets in different directions helps to solve the three dimensional architecture of the flower. The effects of the droplet size and of the pitch value are also reported.
Download full-text PDF |
Source |
|---|---|
| http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10655576 | PMC |
| http://dx.doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2311957120 | DOI Listing |
Publication Analysis
Top Keywords
Similar Publications
Tracking phase transitions of tactoids in sulfated cellulose nanocrystals using second harmonic generation microscopy.
Carbohydr Polym
November 2025
Molecular Imaging and Photonics, Department of Chemistry, KU Leuven, Campus Kulak Kortrijk, Etienne Sabbelaan 53, 8500 Kortrijk, Belgium. Electronic address:
Cellulose nanocrystals (CNCs) have emerged as promising candidates for chiroptical functional materials due to their ability to form cholesteric liquid crystals with tunable periodicity. The quality of the final cholesteric phase is influenced by the nucleation, growth and coalescence mechanism of the initial droplets, known as tactoids. Current research focuses on understanding the size and morphological transformations of these tactoids, to gain deeper insights into their dynamic behavior and, in turn, to better control the final properties of novel photonic materials.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFGeometric frustration in twist-bend nematic droplets.
Soft Matter
September 2025
School of Physics, UNSW, Sydney, NSW 2052, Australia.
Liquid crystals formed of bent-core molecules are exotic materials that exhibit the twist-bend nematic phase. This arises when an energetic preference for nonzero local bend distortion is accommodated twist in the texture, resulting in properties synonymous with both smectics and cholesterics. Here we describe how the frustration inherent to the twist-bend phase can be exacerbated by confinement and boundary anchoring.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPhotoresponsive Helicity Control in Cholesteric Liquid Crystals Using a Chiral Arylazopyrazole Dopant: Chirality Amplification and Helix Inversion.
ACS Appl Mater Interfaces
July 2025
School of Engineering, Utsunomiya University, 7-1-2 Yoto, Utsunomiya, Tochigi 321-8585, Japan.
We report the design and synthesis of a novel chiral arylazopyrazole (AAP) molecular switch, which exhibits robust photoresponsive behavior in nematic liquid crystal (LC) hosts. By integrating both cholesterol and AAP moieties, the dopant induces significant reorganization in cholesteric liquid crystals (CLCs), leading to unprecedented control over helical pitch and chirality. Upon UV irradiation, the dopant undergoes efficient () to () photoisomerization, resulting in substantial changes in helical twisting power (HTP) across various nematic LC hosts such as 5CB (4-cyano-4'-pentylbiphenyl), DON-103, and ZLI-1132.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFHydroxypropyl Cellulose Assembled Microspheres as Structural Color Barcodes from Revolving Microfluidics.
Adv Sci (Weinh)
August 2025
Shanghai Xuhui Central Hospital, Zhongshan-Xuhui Hospital, and the Shanghai Key Laboratory of Medical Epigenetics, The International Co-laboratory of Medical Epigenetics and Metabolism (Ministry of Science and Technology), Institutes of Biomedical Sciences, Fudan University, Shanghai, 200032, China.
Optical barcodes are versatile information carriers widely applied for encryption, commercial anti-counterfeiting, and biomedical fields. Hydroxypropyl cellulose (HPC), as a natural derivative, exhibits excellent biocompatibility and can self-assemble into cholesteric liquid crystals (CLCs) with structure color. However, the high viscosity of HPC CLCs is a huge hurdle for material processing and thus limits their applications.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFGum Arabic induced assembly of cellulose nanocrystals in aqueous media.
Nanoscale Adv
March 2025
Department of Chemical Engineering, The Ilse Katz Institute for Nanoscience and Technology, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev Beer Sheva 84105 Israel
Entropy-driven assembly of nematic liquid-crystal phases of cellulose nanocrystals (SCNCs) in aqueous suspensions results in the emergence of a cholesteric liquid crystalline phase (N* phase). We report that a solvated, non-adsorbing, highly branched natural polysaccharide, Gum Arabic (GA), strongly affects the assembly of the SCNCs and modifies the phase diagram: GA leads to significant crowding of the SCNC rods and induces a new liquid-liquid phase transition, where SCNC-rich and GA-rich droplets coexist. The solvated GA does not induce coagulation or gelation of the suspended SCNCs (at low concentrations of 1-3 wt% of GA).
View Article and Find Full Text PDF