Senyuk Bohdan, Meng Cuiling, Smalyukh Ivan I
Department of Physics, University of Colorado, Boulder, Colorado 80309, United States.
Department of Electrical, Computer and Energy Engineering, University of Colorado, Boulder, Colorado 80309, United States.
Langmuir. 2022 Aug 2;38(30):9099-9118. doi: 10.1021/acs.langmuir.2c00611. Epub 2022 Jul 22.
Colloidal systems are abundant in technology, in biomedical settings, and in our daily life. The so-called "colloidal atoms" paradigm exploits interparticle interactions to self-assemble colloidal analogs of atomic and molecular crystals, liquid crystal glasses, and other types of condensed matter from nanometer- or micrometer-sized colloidal building blocks. Nematic colloids, which comprise colloidal particles dispersed within an anisotropic nematic fluid host medium, provide a particularly rich variety of physical behaviors at the mesoscale, not only matching but even exceeding the diversity of structural and phase behavior in conventional atomic and molecular systems. This feature article, using primarily examples of works from our own group, highlights recent developments in the design, fabrication, and self-assembly of nematic colloidal particles, including the capabilities of preprogramming their behavior by controlling the particle's surface boundary conditions for liquid crystal molecules at the colloidal surfaces as well as by defining the shape and topology of the colloidal particles. Recent progress in defining particle-induced defects, elastic multipoles, self-assembly, and dynamics is discussed along with open issues and challenges within this research field.
胶体系统在技术、生物医学环境以及我们的日常生活中无处不在。所谓的“胶体原子”范式利用粒子间相互作用，从纳米或微米尺寸的胶体构建块自组装出原子和分子晶体、液晶玻璃以及其他类型凝聚态物质的胶体类似物。向列型胶体由分散在各向异性向列型流体主体介质中的胶体粒子组成，在中尺度上展现出特别丰富多样的物理行为，不仅与传统原子和分子系统的结构及相行为的多样性相匹配，甚至更为丰富。这篇专题文章主要以我们自己团队的工作为例，重点介绍了向列型胶体粒子在设计、制造和自组装方面的最新进展，包括通过控制胶体表面液晶分子的粒子表面边界条件以及定义胶体粒子的形状和拓扑结构来预编程其行为的能力。文中还讨论了在定义粒子诱导缺陷、弹性多极子、自组装和动力学方面的最新进展，以及该研究领域内的未决问题和挑战。
