Defect-Mediated Assembly of Liquid Crystal Elastomer Nanocomposites

ORAL

Abstract

One holy grail in making polymer nanocomposites is to be able to place the filling particles into designable positions or orientations. In this talk, we will present a new strategy to self-assemble liquid crystal elastomer nanocomposites by employing topological defects in liquid crystals. We show that topological defects with pre-designed shapes and topology can be created by using a photopatterning technique to control the molecular orientations at the boundaries. Nanoparticles dispersed in the liquid crystals are attracted and self-assembled to these topological defects to minimize the elastic energy of the system. With carefully designed molecular orientations, we show the self-assembly of the nanoparticles into loops and web-networks in liquid crystal polymers.

*NSF CMMI-1436565 and DOE, Office of Sciences, DE-SC0019105

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Presenters

  • Xinfang Zhang

    • Advanced Materials and Liquid Crystal Institute, Kent State University, Kent, Ohio, 44242, USA

Authors

  • Xinfang Zhang

    • Advanced Materials and Liquid Crystal Institute, Kent State University, Kent, Ohio, 44242, USA

  • Hao Yu

    • Kent State University
    • Advanced Materials and Liquid Crystal Institute, Kent State University, Kent, Ohio, 44242, USA
    • Advanced Materials and Liquid Crystal Institute and Chemical Physics Interdisciplinary Program, Kent State University
    • Advanced Materials and Liquid Crystal Institute, Kent State Univeristy

  • Yubing Guo

    • Physical Intelligence, Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems
    • Advanced Materials and Liquid Crystal Institute, Kent State University, Kent, Ohio, 44242, USA

  • Taras Turiv

    • Advanced Materials and Liquid Crystal Institute, Kent State University, Kent, Ohio, 44242, USA
    • Advanced Materials Liquid Crystal Institute and Chemical Physics Interdisciplinary Program, Kent State University
    • Advanced Materials and Liquid Crystal Institute and Chemical Physics Interdisciplinary Program, Kent State University
    • Advanced Materials and Liquid Crystal Institute, Kent State Univeristy
    • Kent State University
    • Advanced Materials and Liquid Crystal Institute, Chemical Physics Interdisciplinary Program, Kent State University

  • O D Lavrentovich

    • Kent State University
    • Advanced Materials and Liquid Crystal Institute, Kent State University, Kent, Ohio, 44242, USA
    • Department of Physics and Advanced Materials Liquid Crystal Institute, Kent State University
    • Advanced Materials and Liquid Crystal Institute and Chemical Physics Interdisciplinary Program and Physics Department, Kent State University
    • Advanced Materials and Liquid Crystal Institute, Kent State Univeristy
    • Advanced Materials and Liquid Crystal Institute / Department of Physics, Kent State University, Kent, OH 44242, USA
    • Department of Physics, Advanced Materials and Liquid Crystal Institute, Chemical Physics Interdisciplinary Program, Kent State University

  • Qi-Huo Wei

    • Kent State University
    • Advanced Material and Liquid Crystal Institute, Kent State University, Kent, OH44242
    • Advanced Materials and Liquid Crystal Institute, Kent State University, Kent, Ohio, 44242, USA
    • Advanced Materials and Liquid Crystal Institute and Chemical Physics Interdisciplinary Program and Physics Department, Kent State University
    • Advanced Materials and Liquid Crystal Institute, Kent State Univeristy