44 research outputs found
Dispersions of ellipsoidal particles in a nematic liquid crystal
Colloidal particles dispersed in a partially ordered medium, such as a liquid
crystal (LC) phase, disturb its alignment and are subject to elastic forces.
These forces are long-ranged, anisotropic and tunable through temperature or
external fields, making them a valuable asset to control colloidal assembly.
The latter is very sensitive to the particle geometry since it alters the
interactions between the colloids. We here present a detailed numerical
analysis of the energetics of elongated objects, namely prolate ellipsoids,
immersed in a nematic host. The results, complemented with qualitative
experiments, reveal novel LC configurations with peculiar topological
properties around the ellipsoids, depending on their aspect ratio and the
boundary conditions imposed on the nematic order parameter. The latter also
determine the preferred orientation of ellipsoids in the nematic field, because
of elastic torques, as well as the morphology of particles aggregates.Comment: 31 pages, 11 figure
Behaviour of colloidal particles in nematic solvents : shape and size effects
Ces travaux de thèse ont pour but d'étudier l'état de dispersion de particules colloïdales dans des cristaux liquides nématiques lyotropes. Ces solvants organisés sont constitués de micelles nanométriques anisotropes. Dans un premier temps, nous montrons qu'il est possible de réaliser des suspensions cinétiquement stables en jouant notamment sur la forme des inclusions micrométriques. Un modèle, développé dans le cadre de cette étude, permet de rendre compte de nos observations. Dans un second temps, nous nous intéressons à l'influence de la diminution de taille de particules sur l'état de dispersion du système. A l'échelle nanométrique, le mouvement brownien, anisotrope dans ce type de milieu, semble gouverner les phénomènes observés.The present PhD work aims at studying the dispersion state of colloidal particles in lyotropic nematic liquid crystals. These organized solvents are made of anisotropic nanometric micelles. Firstly, we show that kinetically stable suspensions may be achieved by playing on the shape of micrometric inclusions in particular. A model, which is developed for this study, can catch well our observations. Secondly, we are interested in the influence of a diminution of the particle size on the dispersion state of the system. At the nanometric scale, the Brownian motion, which is anisotropic in such media, seems to govern the observed phenomena
Behaviour of colloidal particles in nematic solvents : shape and size effects
Ces travaux de thèse ont pour but d'étudier l'état de dispersion de particules colloïdales dans des cristaux liquides nématiques lyotropes. Ces solvants organisés sont constitués de micelles nanométriques anisotropes. Dans un premier temps, nous montrons qu'il est possible de réaliser des suspensions cinétiquement stables en jouant notamment sur la forme des inclusions micrométriques. Un modèle, développé dans le cadre de cette étude, permet de rendre compte de nos observations. Dans un second temps, nous nous intéressons à l'influence de la diminution de taille de particules sur l'état de dispersion du système. A l'échelle nanométrique, le mouvement brownien, anisotrope dans ce type de milieu, semble gouverner les phénomènes observés.The present PhD work aims at studying the dispersion state of colloidal particles in lyotropic nematic liquid crystals. These organized solvents are made of anisotropic nanometric micelles. Firstly, we show that kinetically stable suspensions may be achieved by playing on the shape of micrometric inclusions in particular. A model, which is developed for this study, can catch well our observations. Secondly, we are interested in the influence of a diminution of the particle size on the dispersion state of the system. At the nanometric scale, the Brownian motion, which is anisotropic in such media, seems to govern the observed phenomena
Comportement de particules colloïdales dans des solvants nématiques : influence de la forme et de la taille
The present PhD work aims at studying the dispersion state of colloidal particles in lyotropic nematic liquid crystals. These organized solvents are made of anisotropic nanometric micelles. Firstly, we show that kinetically stable suspensions may be achieved by playing on the shape of micrometric inclusions in particular. A model, which is developed for this study, can catch well our observations. Secondly, we are interested in the influence of a diminution of the particle size on the dispersion state of the system. At the nanometric scale, the Brownian motion, which is anisotropic in such media, seems to govern the observed phenomena.Ces travaux de thèse ont pour but d'étudier l'état de dispersion de particules colloïdales dans des cristaux liquides nématiques lyotropes. Ces solvants organisés sont constitués de micelles nanométriques anisotropes. Dans un premier temps, nous montrons qu'il est possible de réaliser des suspensions cinétiquement stables en jouant notamment sur la forme des inclusions micrométriques. Un modèle, développé dans le cadre de cette étude, permet de rendre compte de nos observations. Dans un second temps, nous nous intéressons à l'influence de la diminution de taille de particules sur l'état de dispersion du système. A l'échelle nanométrique, le mouvement brownien, anisotrope dans ce type de milieu, semble gouverner les phénomènes observés
Comportement de particules colloïdales dans des solvants nématiques (influence de la forme et de la taille)
Ces travaux de thèse ont pour but d'étudier l'état de dispersion de particules colloïdales dans des cristaux liquides nématiques lyotropes. Ces solvants organisés sont constitués de micelles nanométriques anisotropes. Dans un premier temps, nous montrons qu'il est possible de réaliser des suspensions cinétiquement stables en jouant notamment sur la forme des inclusions micrométriques. Un modèle, développé dans le cadre de cette étude, permet de rendre compte de nos observations. Dans un second temps, nous nous intéressons à l'influence de la diminution de taille de particules sur l'état de dispersion du système. A l'échelle nanométrique, le mouvement brownien, anisotrope dans ce type de milieu, semble gouverner les phénomènes observés.The present PhD work aims at studying the dispersion state of colloidal particles in lyotropic nematic liquid crystals. These organized solvents are made of anisotropic nanometric micelles. Firstly, we show that kinetically stable suspensions may be achieved by playing on the shape of micrometric inclusions in particular. A model, which is developed for this study, can catch well our observations. Secondly, we are interested in the influence of a diminution of the particle size on the dispersion state of the system. At the nanometric scale, the Brownian motion, which is anisotropic in such media, seems to govern the observed phenomena.BORDEAUX1-Bib.electronique (335229901) / SudocSudocFranceF
Colloidal aggregation and dynamics in anisotropic fluids
We present experiments and numerical simulations to investigate the collective behavior of submicrometer-sized particles immersed in a nematicmicellar solution. We use latex sphereswith diameters ranging from 190 to 780 nm and study their aggregation properties due to the interplay of the various colloidal forces atwork in the system.Wefound that the morphology of aggregates strongly depends on the particle size, with evidence for two distinct regimes: the biggest inclusions clump together within minutes into either compact clusters or V-like structures that are completely consistent with attractive elastic interactions. On the contrary, the smallest particles form chains elongated along the nematic axis, within comparable timescales. In this regime, Monte Carlo simulations, based on a modified diffusion-limited cluster aggregation model, strongly suggest that the anisotropic rotational Brownian motion of the clusters combined with short-range depletion interactions dominate the system coarsening; elastic interactions no longer prevail
Shape-Induced Dispersion of Colloids in Anisotropic Fluids
We experimentally study the behavior of micrometer-sized prolate ellipsoidal particles dispersed in a nematic liquid crystal. The latter is an aqueous solution of rodlike micelles. When embedded into such a solvent, ellipsoids with small enough aspect ratios aggregate to form anisotropic structures oriented at an angle with respect to the local background director (as already observed for spheres). This is, however, no longer the case when the aspect ratio reaches a well-defined value: above that value, the ellipsoids remain well dispersed and apparently do no interact with each other, even over very long periods of time (several months). Therefore, there exists a transition from an aggregated to a nonaggregated state as a function of aspect ratio and for a given particle concentration. This behavior has not been predicted so far and we put forward simple calculations to rationalize our observations
Photonic Control of Surface Anchoring on Solid Colloids Dispersed in Liquid Crystals
International audienceThe anchoring of liquid-crystal (LC) mesogens to the surfaces of colloids is an important factor in determining intercolloidal interactions and the symmetry of the ensuing colloidal assembly in nematic colloids. The dynamic control of surface anchoring could therefore provide a handle to tune the colloidal organization and resulting properties in these systems. In this article, we report our results on the study of thermotropic nematic LC (E7) dispersions of silica and glass microcolloids bearing photosensitive surface azobenzene groups. By the photoinduced modulation of the colloidal-LC interfacial properties, due to the trans-cis isomerization of azobenzene units, we tune the anchoring on silica colloids from homeotropic (trans-azobenzene) to homogeneous planar (cis-azobenzene) reversibly. In tune with the change in surface anchoring, the interparticle interactions were also dictated by dipolar and quadrupolar symmetries for homeotropic and homogeneous planar anchoring, respectively. In our experiments, we find that, in addition to the isomerization state of the surface-bound azobenzene units, the nature of the colloid plays a crucial role in determining the anchoring state obtained on applying photostimuli. We also study the LC anchoring on colloids as a function of the azobenzene surface density and find that beyond a threshold value the anchoring properties remain invariant