What is it about?
Under the right conditions, phase separating liquid crystals can condense into astonishing structures, spontaneously generating networks of filaments and flattened discs that can transport material from one place to another, much like complex biological systems.
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Why is it important?
A wide range of man-made and naturally occurring processes involve the demixing of liquid mixtures, spontaneously driving chemical compartmentalization. However, the influence of liquid crystallinity on such phase separation is poorly understood. Our work demonstrates that under certain conditions, active networks of condensed liquid crystals form as a result of such phase separation. The work highlights the complex self-assembled architectures accessible by such systems and describes the mechanisms by which they form and move. By describing the competing physical stresses that drive this self-assembly, our work suggests conditions when we expect such condensate networks to form in natural and engineered systems.
Perspectives
These liquid crystal condensate networks self-assemble and continuously remodel themselves without any explicitly active components. This new type of emergent activity may provide avenues to emulate biological systems or fabricate useful materials from molecular assemblies with a network architecture.
Chinedum Osuji
University of Pennsylvania
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Spontaneous assembly of condensate networks during the demixing of structured fluids, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, September 2024, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences,
DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2407914121.
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