Colloidal interactions and unusual crystallization versus de-mixing of elastic multipoles formed by gold mesoflowers

Yuan, Y, Tasinkevych, M ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6689-1844 and Smalyukh, II, 2020. Colloidal interactions and unusual crystallization versus de-mixing of elastic multipoles formed by gold mesoflowers. Nature Communications, 11: 188. ISSN 2041-1723

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Abstract

Colloidal interactions in nematic liquid crystals can be described as interactions between elastic multipoles that depend on particle shape, topology, chirality, boundary conditions and induced topological defects. Here, we describe a nematic colloidal system consisting of mesostructures of gold capable of inducing elastic multipoles of different order. Elastic monopoles are formed by relatively large asymmetric mesoflower particles, for which gravity and elastic torque balancing yields monopole-type interactions. High-order multipoles are instead formed by smaller mesoflowers with a myriad of shapes corresponding to multipoles of different orders, consistent with our computer simulations based on free energy minimization. We reveal unexpected many-body interactions in this colloidal system, ranging from de-mixing of elastic monopoles to a zoo of unusual colloidal crystals formed by high-order multipoles like hexadecapoles. Our findings show that gold mesoflowers may serve as a designer toolkit for engineering colloidal interaction and self-assembly, potentially exceeding that in atomic and molecular systems.

Item Type:	Journal article
Publication Title:	Nature Communications
Creators:	Yuan, Y., Tasinkevych, M. and Smalyukh, I.I.
Publisher:	Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date:	10 January 2020
Volume:	11
ISSN:	2041-1723
Identifiers:	Number Type 10.1038/s41467-019-14031-2 DOI 1636033 Other
Divisions:	Schools > School of Science and Technology
Record created by:	Jeremy Silvester
Date Added:	19 Jan 2023 16:53
Last Modified:	19 Jan 2023 16:53
URI:	https://irep.ntu.ac.uk/id/eprint/47982

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