Title

Director Configuration of Liquid-Crystal Droplets Encapsulated by Polyelectrolytes

Authors

Authors

J. H. Zou;J. Y. Fang

Comments

Authors: contact us about adding a copy of your work at STARS@ucf.edu

Abbreviated Journal Title

Langmuir

Keywords

NEMATIC EMULSIONS; MANIPULATION; INTERFACES; STABILITY; SELECTION; SHAPE; SIZE; Chemistry, Multidisciplinary; Chemistry, Physical; Materials Science, ; Multidisciplinary

Abstract

Liquid-crystal 4-n-pentyl-4'-cyanobiphenyl (503) droplets dispersed in aqueous solution are prepared by the assembly of poly(styrenesulfonic acid) (PSSH) and poly(styrenesulfonate sodium) (PSSNa) at the 5CB/water interlace. The micrometer sized PSSH-coated 5CB droplets in the space confinement formed by two parallel glass slides break up into submicrometer sized droplets under evaporation-induced flow. We find that the size reduction of the PSSH-coated droplets is accompanied by the bipolar-to-radial configuration transition of the 5CB in the droplets, while the PSSNa-coated 5CB droplets show no size-dependent configuration transition in the same size range. Our results suggest that the size-dependent director configuration of liquid-crystal droplets encapsulated by polyelectrolytes can he modulated by changing the interface conditions, which is important in designing liquid-crystal droplets for optical and biological applications.

Journal Title

Langmuir

Volume

26

Issue/Number

10

Publication Date

1-1-2010

Document Type

Article

Language

English

First Page

7025

Last Page

7028

WOS Identifier

WOS:000277398600024

ISSN

0743-7463

Share

COinS