Polymorphic transitions mediated by surfactants in liquid crystal nanodroplet

ABSTRACT

Recently, various techniques have been developed using photonic crystals. Liquid crystals (LC) confined in a nanodroplet mimicked photonic crystals, such as those of opal. Therefore, investigating the phase behaviour of LC molecules in nanodroplets is very important in the next-generation optical field. In this study, the chemical interaction between surfactants and LCs in nanodroplets is reproduced using a dissipative particle dynamics method. We identify the phase behaviour of LCs and investigate how the chemical interaction affect on the orientation of LCs. In particular, by adding surfactant molecules, various morphological behaviours were observed in the LC nanodroplet. The phase transition temperature varied depending on R_ND (amount of surfactant molecules). Furthermore, difference of the self-assembly structure also appeared inside the droplet depending on R_ND. Our simulation offers a theoretical guide to control morphologies of self-assembled LCs inside a nanodroplet, a novel system that may find applications in nanofluidic devices or in photonic crystal technology.

Graphical Abstract

KEYWORDS:

• Liquid crystal
• surfactant
• photonic crystal
• dissipative particle dynamics method
• confined system

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science [17K14610].