https://doi.org/10.1140/epjst/e2015-02458-y
Review
Liquid-crystal enabled electrophoresis: Scenarios for driving and reconfigurable assembling of colloids
1 Department of Physical Chemistry, Universitat de Barcelona, Martí i Franquès 1, 08028 Barcelona, Spain
2 Department of Structure and Constituents of Matter, Universitat de Barcelona, Diagonal 647, 08028 Barcelona, Spain
3 Institute of Nanoscience and Nanotechnology, IN2UB, University of Barcelona, Spain
a e-mail: f.sagues@ub.edu
Received: 23 February 2015
Revised: 18 May 2015
Published online: 24 July 2015
We demonstrate several examples of driving and steering of colloids when dispersed in nematic liquid crystals. The driving mechanism is based on the principle of nonlinear electrophoresis which is mediated by the asymmetry in the structure of the defects that the inclusions generate in the host elastic matrix. The steering mechanism originates in the photoactivation of the anchoring conditions of the nematic liquid crystal on one of the enclosing plates. As experimental realizations we first review a scenario of water microdroplets being phoretically transported for cargo release and chemical reaction. Steering is illustrated in terms of the reconfigurable assembly of colloidal particles, either in the form of asters or rotating-mills, commanded by predesigned patterns of illumination.
© EDP Sciences, Springer-Verlag, 2015
