Gleeson, HF orcid.org/0000-0002-7494-2100, Liu, H, Kaur, S orcid.org/0000-0002-8411-8270 et al. (4 more authors) (2018) Self-assembling, macroscopically oriented, polymer filaments; a doubly nematic organogel. Soft Matter, 14 (45). pp. 9159-9167. ISSN 1744-683X
Abstract
Nanoscale phase separation and self-organisation in liquid crystals leads to the formation of remarkable hierarchical structures. There are several examples of heliconical nanofilament structures including in the nematic twist-bend (NTB) phase, the B4 phase and liquid crystal gels formed from the B4 phase. Both the formation of the polymer-like structures that permeate the soft-solids and their hierarchical structures are fascinating, not least because of the analogies that can be drawn with naturally-occurring structures. Here, we report a remarkably simple binary system formed from a nonsymmetric BC molecule and the rod-like liquid crystal, 5CB. The pure bent-core system exhibits both nematic and dark conglomerate liquid crystal phases. At very low concentrations of the BC material (5-10%) this binary system spontaneously self-assembles into a soft solid formed from nanoscale filaments that are aligned by their nematic environment. Macroscopically, the soft solid shows behaviour that can be associated with both polymers and gels. Interestingly, the sub-micron scale structure of the filaments appears remarkably similar to some organised fibrous structures in nature (e.g. chitin, cellulose, insect cuticle, plant cell walls) something we attribute to self-assembly and selforganisation in an aligned liquid crystalline environment. The nanoscale structure of the filaments show no features that can be associated with heliconical ordering down to length scales of tens of nanometers. However, the x-ray data suggests that a metastable rectangular columnar phase which is highly ordered in one dimension initially forms, changing to a hexagonal lattice on a timescale of tens of minutes.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | This journal is © The Royal Society of Chemistry 20xx. This is an author produced version of a paper published in Soft Matter. Uploaded in accordance with the publisher's self-archiving policy. |
Keywords: | liquid crystal; nematic gel; filament; soft solid; self-assembly; nature's plywood |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of Leeds |
Academic Units: | The University of Leeds > Faculty of Biological Sciences (Leeds) > School of Molecular and Cellular Biology (Leeds) The University of Leeds > Faculty of Engineering & Physical Sciences (Leeds) > School of Physics and Astronomy (Leeds) > Soft Matter Physics (Leeds) |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Publications |
Date Deposited: | 02 Nov 2018 13:12 |
Last Modified: | 17 Dec 2024 11:22 |
Status: | Published |
Publisher: | Royal Society of Chemistry |
Identification Number: | 10.1039/C8SM01638K |
Related URLs: | |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:138110 |