Related Experiment Video
Updated: Aug 11, 2026

Forming, Confining, and Observing Microtubule-Based Active Nematics
Published on: January 13, 2023
Branching of colloidal chains in capillary-confined nematics
Pavel Kossyrev1, Miha Ravnik, Slobodan Zumer
1Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 77 Massachusetts Avenue, NE47-4th floor, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139, USA.
Abstract:
We report on the observation of colloidal chain assembly and branching inside capillaries filled with a nematic liquid crystal. Because of the homeotropic anchoring of liquid crystalline molecules on the capillary and colloidal droplet surfaces, the assembly of droplets along the capillary axis is expected, producing a transformation of the nematic director field from an escape-radial to quasiradial configuration. However, the subsequent over time branching of the straight colloidal chains is counterintuitive. By numerical simulations, we demonstrate that chain branching can occur by overcoming an energy barrier and can at least dwell as a metastable configuration. Moreover, manipulation of colloidal chains by electric fields and their gradients demonstrates various regimes of chain behavior in electric fields.
Related Concept Videos
Capillarity in Fluid
Surface tension is crucial to capillarity. It results from cohesive forces between liquid molecules at the liquid-air boundary, forming a skin that resists external forces. When the capillary tube...
Colloids and Suspensions
Rise of Liquid in a Capillary Tube
Radical Chain-Growth Polymerization: Chain Branching
Colloids
Generation of Straight or Branched Actin Filaments
Arp2/3 Complex
Arp2/3 complex is a seven-subunit complex consisting of two proteins similar to actin- Arp2 and Arp3, and five other subunits that help keep Arp2 and Arp3 inactive. When required, the complex is...

