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Melton CN, Riahinasab ST, Keshavarz A, et al. Phase Transition-Driven Nanoparticle Assembly in Liquid Crystal Droplets. Nanomaterials (Basel). 2018;8(3)doi: 10.3390/nano8030146.
Melton, C. N., Riahinasab, S. T., Keshavarz, A., Stokes, B. J., & Hirst, L. S. (2018). Phase Transition-Driven Nanoparticle Assembly in Liquid Crystal Droplets. Nanomaterials (Basel, Switzerland), 8(3), . https://doi.org/10.3390/nano8030146
Melton, Charles N, et al. "Phase Transition-Driven Nanoparticle Assembly in Liquid Crystal Droplets." Nanomaterials (Basel, Switzerland) vol. 8,3 (2018). doi: https://doi.org/10.3390/nano8030146
Melton CN, Riahinasab ST, Keshavarz A, Stokes BJ, Hirst LS. Phase Transition-Driven Nanoparticle Assembly in Liquid Crystal Droplets. Nanomaterials (Basel). 2018 Mar 07;8(3). doi: 10.3390/nano8030146. PMID: 29518904; PMCID: PMC5869637.
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Nanomaterials (Basel). 2018 Mar 07;8(3). doi: 10.3390/nano8030146.

Phase Transition-Driven Nanoparticle Assembly in Liquid Crystal Droplets.

Nanomaterials (Basel, Switzerland)

Charles N Melton, Sheida T Riahinasab, Amir Keshavarz, Benjamin J Stokes, Linda S Hirst

Affiliations

  1. Department of Physics, School of Natural Sciences, University of California, 5200 North Lake Rd., Merced, CA 95343, USA. [email protected].
  2. Department of Physics, School of Natural Sciences, University of California, 5200 North Lake Rd., Merced, CA 95343, USA. [email protected].
  3. Chemistry and Chemical Biology Unit, School of Natural Sciences, University of California, 5200 North Lake Rd., Merced, CA 95343, USA. [email protected].
  4. Chemistry and Chemical Biology Unit, School of Natural Sciences, University of California, 5200 North Lake Rd., Merced, CA 95343, USA. [email protected].
  5. Department of Physics, School of Natural Sciences, University of California, 5200 North Lake Rd., Merced, CA 95343, USA. [email protected].

PMID: 29518904 PMCID: PMC5869637 DOI: 10.3390/nano8030146

Abstract

When nanoparticle self-assembly takes place in an anisotropic liquid crystal environment, fascinating new effects can arise. The presence of elastic anisotropy and topological defects can direct spatial organization. An important goal in nanoscience is to direct the assembly of nanoparticles over large length scales to produce macroscopic composite materials; however, limitations on spatial ordering exist due to the inherent disorder of fluid-based methods. In this paper we demonstrate the formation of quantum dot clusters and spherical capsules suspended within spherical liquid crystal droplets as a method to position nanoparticle clusters at defined locations. Our experiments demonstrate that particle sorting at the isotropic-nematic phase front can dominate over topological defect-based assembly. Notably, we find that assembly at the nematic phase front can force nanoparticle clustering at energetically unfavorable locations in the droplets to form stable hollow capsules and fractal clusters at the droplet centers.

Keywords: nanoparticle; nematic liquid crystal; phase transition; quantum dot; self-assembly

Conflict of interest statement

The author declares no conflict of interest.

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