Topology-dependent self-structure mediation and efficient energy conversion in heat-flux-driven rotors of cholesteric droplets

Jun Yoshioka and Fumito Araoka ()
Additional contact information
Jun Yoshioka: RIKEN Center for Emergent Matter Science (CEMS)
Fumito Araoka: RIKEN Center for Emergent Matter Science (CEMS)

Nature Communications, 2018, vol. 9, issue 1, 1-11

Abstract: Abstract When heat flux is applied to a chiral liquid crystal, unidirectional rotation is induced around the flux axis, as first discovered by Otto Lehmann in 1900. In recent years, this heat-flux-induced phenomenon has been studied mostly in droplets of cholesteric liquid crystals undergoing phase transition from the isotropic to cholesteric phase, i.e., in the coexistence region, which occurs over a very narrow temperature range. Here, we report that the heat-flux-induced rotation can be stabilised by the use of a dispersion system, in which the cholesteric droplets are dispersed in a viscous and poorly miscible isotropic solvent. Interestingly, the phenomenon is found to be topology dependent. Moreover, the rotation is not only stable but also more efficient than that in the known systems. We describe in detail how the dynamics of the heat-flux-induced rotation are altered in the present dispersion system.

Date: 2018
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-018-02910-z Abstract (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nat:natcom:v:9:y:2018:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-018-02910-z

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.nature.com/ncomms/

DOI: 10.1038/s41467-018-02910-z

Access Statistics for this article

Nature Communications is currently edited by Nathalie Le Bot, Enda Bergin and Fiona Gillespie

More articles in Nature Communications from Nature
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().