Liquid crystal phase transitions in suspensions of polydisperse plate-like particles

Felix M. van der Kooij, Katerina Kassapidou and Henk N. W. Lekkerkerker ()
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Felix M. van der Kooij: Van't Hoff Laboratory for Physical and Colloid Chemistry, Debye Institute, Utrecht University
Katerina Kassapidou: Van't Hoff Laboratory for Physical and Colloid Chemistry, Debye Institute, Utrecht University
Henk N. W. Lekkerkerker: Van't Hoff Laboratory for Physical and Colloid Chemistry, Debye Institute, Utrecht University

Nature, 2000, vol. 406, issue 6798, 868-871

Abstract: Abstract Colloidal suspensions that form periodic self-assembling structures on sub-micrometre scales are of potential technological interest; for example, three-dimensional arrangements of spheres in colloidal crystals1 might serve as photonic materials2, intended to manipulate light. Colloidal particles with non-spherical shapes (such as rods and plates) are of particular interest because of their ability to form liquid crystals. Nematic liquid crystals possess orientational order; smectic and columnar liquid crystals additionally exhibit positional order (in one or two dimensions respectively). However, such positional ordering3,4 may be inhibited in polydisperse colloidal suspensions. Here we describe a suspension of plate-like colloids that shows isotropic, nematic and columnar phases on increasing the particle concentration. We find that the columnar two-dimensional crystal persists for a polydispersity of up to 25%, with a cross-over to smectic-like ordering at very high particle concentrations. Our results imply that liquid crystalline order in synthetic mesoscopic materials may be easier to achieve than previously thought.

Date: 2000
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DOI: 10.1038/35022535

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