Thermal relaxation model of surface director gliding in lyotropic liquid crystals

In nature, proteins like rhodopsin act as transducer for photo-chemical reactions causing biological responses (e.g. enabling vision). The underlying concept – a photo-induced conformational change of the protein as amplifier of the photo-responsive moiety – can also be adopted by synthetical polymers or foldamers that have the propensity to form ordered secondary structures (e.g. polypeptides). An alternative approach to amplify photo-chemical responses is their incorporation into liquid crystals. With only a few exceptions, photo-insensitive liquid crystals are doped with dyes that favour disorder upon irradiation. In theory, photo-responsive polypeptides, capable of forming lyotropic liquid crystals, could exploit both amplification approaches but, in practice, their photo-responsivity is hampered by the reduced mobility of polypeptides in concentrated solutions. Here we show that the E/Z photo-isomerisation of an azobenzene containing polyaspartate initiates a helix-coil backbone transition, which reversibly alters the polypeptide solution from anisotropic to isotropic. In contrast to other photo-responsible polymers14, in which thermal relaxation to the more stable photo-isomer is quite fast, both photo-isomers are thermally stable and interconvertible by visible light in a single solvent. Local irradiation and magnetic fields lead to spatial resolution and unidirectional architectures of the liquid crystal, respectively. Our results demonstrate that photo-isomerisation on a molecular level is amplified in three stages via intra- and intermolecular interactions to yield a unidirectional, chiral liquid crystal. We believe, the morphological changes of the liquid crystal induced by light will facilitate a multitude of applications, like photo-alignment or the photo-control of solution viscosity and anisotropic diffusion. When incorporated into layer-by-layer architectures the polymer could find application in biomedicine and the spatial and temporal resolution could be exploited in nano-technology.

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Light-Controlled Lyotropic Liquid Crystallinity of Polyaspartates

10.26434/chemrxiv.13643126 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Max Hirschmann ◽

Christina M. Thiele

Keyword(s):

Liquid Crystal ◽

Liquid Crystals ◽

Morphological Changes ◽

Thermal Relaxation ◽

Lyotropic Liquid Crystals ◽

Solution Viscosity ◽

Layer By Layer ◽

Nano Technology ◽

Biological Responses ◽

Photo Alignment

In nature, proteins like rhodopsin act as transducer for photo-chemical reactions causing biological responses (e.g. enabling vision). The underlying concept – a photo-induced conformational change of the protein as amplifier of the photo-responsive moiety – can also be adopted by synthetical polymers or foldamers that have the propensity to form ordered secondary structures (e.g. polypeptides). An alternative approach to amplify photo-chemical responses is their incorporation into liquid crystals. With only a few exceptions, photo-insensitive liquid crystals are doped with dyes that favour disorder upon irradiation. In theory, photo-responsive polypeptides, capable of forming lyotropic liquid crystals, could exploit both amplification approaches but, in practice, their photo-responsivity is hampered by the reduced mobility of polypeptides in concentrated solutions. Here we show that the E/Z photo-isomerisation of an azobenzene containing polyaspartate initiates a helix-coil backbone transition, which reversibly alters the polypeptide solution from anisotropic to isotropic. In contrast to other photo-responsible polymers14, in which thermal relaxation to the more stable photo-isomer is quite fast, both photo-isomers are thermally stable and interconvertible by visible light in a single solvent. Local irradiation and magnetic fields lead to spatial resolution and unidirectional architectures of the liquid crystal, respectively. Our results demonstrate that photo-isomerisation on a molecular level is amplified in three stages via intra- and intermolecular interactions to yield a unidirectional, chiral liquid crystal. We believe, the morphological changes of the liquid crystal induced by light will facilitate a multitude of applications, like photo-alignment or the photo-control of solution viscosity and anisotropic diffusion. When incorporated into layer-by-layer architectures the polymer could find application in biomedicine and the spatial and temporal resolution could be exploited in nano-technology.

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Undulating paired disclinations (oily streaks) in lyotropic liquid crystals

Journal de Physique ◽

10.1051/jphys:01984004502027300 ◽

1984 ◽

Vol 45 (2) ◽

pp. 273-281 ◽

Cited By ~ 16

Author(s):

M.B. Schneider ◽

W.W. Webb

Keyword(s):

Liquid Crystals ◽

Lyotropic Liquid Crystals

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Lyotropic liquid crystals

Physics Subject Headings (PhySH) ◽

10.29172/b2a30868-6c3c-4e85-a4d9-73456ef016dc ◽

2018 ◽

Keyword(s):

Liquid Crystals ◽

Lyotropic Liquid Crystals

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Coupling between the Dynamics of Water and Surfactants in Lyotropic Liquid Crystals

The Journal of Physical Chemistry B ◽

10.1021/acs.jpcb.7b02551 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 121 (19) ◽

pp. 5048-5057 ◽

Cited By ~ 3

Author(s):

Jesse G. McDaniel ◽

Arun Yethiraj

Keyword(s):

Liquid Crystals ◽

Lyotropic Liquid Crystals

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Electro optical phenomena in lyotropic liquid crystals

Lettere al Nuovo Cimento ◽

10.1007/bf02772265 ◽

1980 ◽

Vol 28 (18) ◽

pp. 608-612 ◽

Cited By ~ 6

Author(s):

D. Senatra ◽

M. Vannini ◽

A. P. Neri

Keyword(s):

Liquid Crystals ◽

Lyotropic Liquid Crystals ◽

Optical Phenomena

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Additives-directed Lyotropic Liquid Crystals Architecture:Simulations and Experiments

International Journal of Pharmaceutics ◽

10.1016/j.ijpharm.2021.120353 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 120353

Author(s):

Kang Wang ◽

Zhi Li ◽

Yiming Huang ◽

YaotianTao ◽

Xiao Liang ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Liquid Crystals ◽

Lyotropic Liquid Crystals

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Production of giant unilamellar vesicles and encapsulation of lyotropic nematic liquid crystals

Soft Matter ◽

10.1039/d0sm01684e ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Peng Bao ◽

Daniel A. Paterson ◽

Sally A. Peyman ◽

J. Cliff Jones ◽

Jonathan A. T. Sandoe ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Liquid Crystals ◽

Nematic Liquid Crystals ◽

Double Emulsion ◽

Lyotropic Liquid Crystals ◽

Giant Unilamellar Vesicles ◽

Unilamellar Vesicles ◽

Emulsion Droplets ◽

Double Emulsion Droplets

We describe a modified microfluidic method for making Giant Unilamellar Vesicles (GUVs) via water/octanol-lipid/water double emulsion droplets and encapsulation of nematic lyotropic liquid crystals (LNLCs).

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