Reconfigurable swarms of colloidal particles electrophoretically driven in nematic liquid crystals
We present experiments where anisometric colloidal microparticles dispersed in a nematic liquid crystal cell with homeotropic anchoring conditions are dynamically assembled by means of liquid-crystal-enabled electrophoresis (LCEEP) using an AC electric field perpendicular to the confining plates. A...
| Authors: | , , , |
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| Format: | article |
| Status: | Versión aceptada para publicación |
| Publication Date: | 2015 |
| Country: | España |
| Institution: | Universidad de Barcelona |
| Repository: | Dipòsit Digital de la UB |
| OAI Identifier: | oai:diposit.ub.edu:2445/67059 |
| Online Access: | https://hdl.handle.net/2445/67059 |
| Access Level: | Open access |
| Keyword: | Electroforesi Col·loides Electrophoresis Colloids |
| Summary: | We present experiments where anisometric colloidal microparticles dispersed in a nematic liquid crystal cell with homeotropic anchoring conditions are dynamically assembled by means of liquid-crystal-enabled electrophoresis (LCEEP) using an AC electric field perpendicular to the confining plates. A nematic host with negative dielectric anisotropy leads to a driving force parallel to the cell plates. We take advantage of the resulting gliding anchoring conditions and the degeneracy in the direction of particle motion to design reconfigurable trajectories using a photosensitive anchoring layer (azosilane self-assembled monolayer), as the particle trajectory follows the local director orientation. |
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