Tunable templating of photonic microparticles via liquid crystal order-guided adsorption of amphiphilic polymers in emulsions.

ABSTRACT: Multiple emulsions are usually stabilized by amphiphilic molecules that combine the chemical characteristics of the different phases in contact. When one phase is a liquid crystal (LC), the choice of stabilizer also determines its configuration, but conventional wisdom assumes that the orientational order of the LC has no impact on the stabilizer. Here we show that, for the case of amphiphilic polymer stabilizers, this impact can be considerable. The mode of interaction between stabilizer and LC changes if the latter is heated close to its isotropic state, initiating a feedback loop that reverberates on the LC in form of a complete structural rearrangement. We utilize this phenomenon to dynamically tune the configuration of cholesteric LC shells from one with radial helix and spherically s

SUBMITTER: Ma X 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10869789 | biostudies-literature | 2024 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature