Nonsphere
Drop Impact Assembly of Graphene Oxide Liquid
Crystals
Qiuyan Yang
Yanqiu Jiang
Dongyu Fan
Kan Zheng
Jiayi Zhang
Zhen Xu
Weiquan Yao
Qingxu Zhang
Yihu Song
Qiang Zheng
Liwu Fan
Weiwei Gao
Chao Gao
10.1021/acsnano.9b03926.s002
https://acs.figshare.com/articles/media/Nonsphere_Drop_Impact_Assembly_of_Graphene_Oxide_Liquid_Crystals/8864753
Creating
long-lived topological textured liquid crystals (LCs)
in confined nonspherical space is of significance in both generations
of structures and fundamental studies of topological physics. However,
it remains a great challenge due to the fluid character of LCs and
the unstable tensional state of transient nonspheres. Here, we realize
a rich series of topological textures confined in nonspherical geometries
by drop impact assembly (DIA) of graphene oxide (GO) aqueous LCs.
Various highly curved nonspherical morphologies of LCs were captured
by gelator bath, generating distinct out-of-equilibrium yet long-lived
macroscopic topological textures in 3D confinement. Our hydrodynamic
investigations on DIA processes reveal that the shear-thinning fluid
behavior of LCs and the arrested GO alignments mainly contribute to
the topological richness in DIA. Utilizing the shaping behavior of
GO LCs compared to other conventional linear polymers such as alginate,
we further extend the DIA methodology to design more complex yet highly
controllable functional composites and hybrids. This work thus reveals
the potential to scale production of uniform yet anisotropic materials
with rich topologic textures and tailored composition.
2019-07-10 00:00:00
anisotropic materials
DIA processes
fluid character
Impact Assembly
Graphene Oxide Liquid Crystals
LC
topologic textures
topological textures
DIA methodology
graphene oxide
topological richness
nonspherical space
nonspherical morphologies
topological physics
3 D confinement
scale production
drop impact assembly
nonspherical geometries
macroscopic topological textures
shear-thinning fluid behavior
gelator bath
hydrodynamic investigations