Periodic Arrays of Chiral Domains Generated from the Self-Assembly of Micropatterned Achiral Lyotropic Chromonic Liquid Crystal

Abstract

Achiral building blocks forming achiral structures is a common occurrence in nature, while chirality emerging spontaneously from an achiral system is usually associated with important scientific phenomena. We report on the spontaneous chiral symmetry-breaking phenomena upon the topographic confinement of achiral lyotropic chromonic liquid crystals in periodically arranged micrometer scale air pillars. The anisotropic fluid arranges into chiral domains that depend on the arrangement and spacing of the pillars. We characterize the resulting domains by polarized optical microscopy, support their reconstruction by numerical calculations, and extend the findings with experiments, which include chiral dopants. Well-controlled and addressed chiral structures will be useful in potential applications like programmable scaffolds for living liquid crystals and as sensors for detecting chirality at the molecular level.

Security use of bilayer dichroic films made of liquid crystal polymer networks

“…Moreover, it is expected that a film with dynamic color changes can be fabricated using additional LCs and electric fields in the future [7,8]. Finally, it is expected that an optical film with a threedimensional director configuration or with chiral properties introduced can be achieved when various liquid crystal properties are applied [25][26][27].…”

Biased Symmetry Breaking and Chiral Control by Self‐Replicating in Achiral Tetradentate Platinum (II) Complexes

“…Up to now, the control of supramolecular chirality in achiral self‐assembled systems has been achieved by subtle external stimuli from chiral sources and tiny chiral components. For instance, stirring vortices, [21, 26–28] rotational and magnetic forces, [29–31] circularly polarized light (CPL), [32–34] artificial chiral nanostructures, [24, 35] topographic confinement, [36] external templates, and induction of seeds [8] . Some representative C 3 ‐symmetrical molecules display propeller‐like conformation, and the instantaneous chiral conformations can be confined by intermolecular interactions in a gel state and the control of handedness is achieved by the external stimuli [19, 21, 27] .…”

Design of Chiral Domains by Surface Confinement of Liquid Crystals

“…The present work 1 deals with this next level of complexity in the relationship between symmetries of phenomenon and causes since the confinement shows no chirality. It is the nematic elasticity that responds in a chiral manner to the confinement.…”

“…The elegant design of arrays of alternating left- and right- twisted domains by Geonhyeong Park et al 1 suggests a number of interesting research extensions. Chiral molecules, such as l -amino acids or d -nucleotides, can be added to the nematic LCLC to make it a cholesteric with a certain handedness.…”

“…Would the confinement-induced chirality affect the dynamics of chiral microswimmers such as bacteria with helicoidal flagella 10 and their artificial analogues? All these questions could be addressed with the approach described by Geonhyeong Park et al 1 …”