Six-fold director field configuration in amyloid nematic and cholesteric phases

21Citations
Citations of this article
28Readers
Mendeley users who have this article in their library.

This article is free to access.

Abstract

Chiral liquid crystals, or cholesteric phases, have been widely studied in the last decades, leading to fundamental advances and a multitude of applications and technologies. In general, the rich phenomenology of these systems depends directly on the molecular traits and conditions of the system, imposing precise symmetry to the resulting nematic field. By selecting amyloid fibrils as model filamentous chiral colloids, we report an unprecedented breadth of liquid crystalline morphologies, where up to six distinct configurations of the nematic field are observed under identical conditions. Amyloid-rich droplets show homogeneous, bipolar, radial, uniaxial chiral and radial chiral nematic fields, with additional parabolic focal conics in bulk. Variational and scaling theories allow rationalizing the experimental evidence as a subtle interplay between surface and bulk energies. Our experimental and theoretical findings deepen the understanding of chiral liquid crystals under confinement, opening to a more comprehensive exploitation of these systems in related functional materials.

References Powered by Scopus

Dense packing and symmetry in small clusters of microspheres

1007Citations
N/AReaders
Get full text

Chiral symmetry breaking in confining theories

886Citations
N/AReaders
Get full text

Structural origin of circularly polarized iridescence in jeweled beetles

572Citations
N/AReaders
Get full text

Cited by Powered by Scopus

Metal ions confinement defines the architecture of G-quartet, G-quadruplex fibrils and their assembly into nematic tactoids

39Citations
N/AReaders
Get full text

Relaxation dynamics in bio-colloidal cholesteric liquid crystals confined to cylindrical geometry

35Citations
N/AReaders
Get full text

Prolate and oblate chiral liquid crystal spheroids

34Citations
N/AReaders
Get full text

Register to see more suggestions

Mendeley helps you to discover research relevant for your work.

Already have an account?

Cite

CITATION STYLE

APA

Bagnani, M., Azzari, P., Assenza, S., & Mezzenga, R. (2019). Six-fold director field configuration in amyloid nematic and cholesteric phases. Scientific Reports, 9(1). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-019-48996-3

Readers' Seniority

Tooltip

PhD / Post grad / Masters / Doc 17

89%

Professor / Associate Prof. 1

5%

Researcher 1

5%

Readers' Discipline

Tooltip

Physics and Astronomy 6

50%

Chemistry 3

25%

Engineering 2

17%

Chemical Engineering 1

8%

Save time finding and organizing research with Mendeley

Sign up for free