Phase Separation and Organisation of Colloidal Spheres Suspended in Sheared Lyotropic Liquid-Crystalline Polymers
✍ Scribed by Shanju Zhang; Eugene M. Terentjev; Athene M. Donald
- Publisher
- John Wiley and Sons
- Year
- 2005
- Tongue
- English
- Weight
- 219 KB
- Volume
- 26
- Category
- Article
- ISSN
- 1022-1336
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✦ Synopsis
Abstract
Summary: Organisation behaviours of spherical particles suspended in sheared, lyotropic, liquid‐crystalline polymer solutions have been investigated using polarizing optical microscopy. We find that in a nematic phase the particles phase separate and adopt anisotropic chain‐like structures along the director. An earring defect is observed around a single particle whereas a cross or strings defect between neighbouring particles is found to serve as a repulsive barrier to prevent the particles from contacting each other. A theoretical analysis is presented to explain this new phenomenon.
An optical micrograph of 0.01 wt.‐% glass spheres suspended in a nematic solution of 40 wt.‐% ethyl cellulose in chloroform under an external shear force.
magnified imageAn optical micrograph of 0.01 wt.‐% glass spheres suspended in a nematic solution of 40 wt.‐% ethyl cellulose in chloroform under an external shear force.