Flow-induced periodic chiral structures in an achiral nematic liquid crystal
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s41467-023-43978-6.pdf
Size
2.48 MB
Format
Adobe PDF
Checksum (MD5)
18fe61684558a4c930088e09641a219b
Author(s)
Zhang, Qing
Wang, Weiqiang
Zhou, Shuang
Zhang, Rui
Bischofberger, Irmgard
Date Issued
January 8, 2024
Journal
Nature Communications
Publisher
Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Citation
Zhang, Q., Wang, W., Zhou, S. et al. Flow-induced periodic chiral structures in an achiral nematic liquid crystal. Nat Commun 15, 7 (2024).
Version
Final published version
Abstract
Supramolecular chirality typically originates from either chiral molecular building blocks or external chiral stimuli. Generating chirality in achiral systems in the absence of a chiral input, however, is non-trivial and necessitates spontaneous mirror symmetry breaking. Achiral nematic lyotropic chromonic liquid crystals have been reported to break mirror symmetry under strong surface or geometric constraints. Here we describe a previously unrecognised mechanism for creating chiral structures by subjecting the material to a pressure-driven flow in a microfluidic cell. The chirality arises from a periodic double-twist configuration of the liquid crystal and manifests as a striking stripe pattern. We show that the mirror symmetry breaking is triggered at regions of flow-induced biaxial-splay configurations of the director field, which are unstable to small perturbations and evolve into lower energy structures. The simplicity of this unique pathway to mirror symmetry breaking can shed light on the requirements for forming macroscopic chiral structures.
Subjects
General Physics and Astronomy
General Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology
General Chemistry
Multidisciplinary
MIT Department
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Mechanical Engineering
Terms of Use
Creative Commons Attribution
Persistent DSpace Link
DOI of Published Version
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-023-43978-6
