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Colloids and Suspensions01:17

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Children at play often make suspensions such as mixtures of mud and water, flour and water, or a suspension of solid pigments in water known as tempera paint. These suspensions are heterogeneous mixtures composed of relatively large particles visible to the naked eye or seen with a magnifying glass. They are cloudy, and the suspended particles settle out after mixing. The suspended particles in a suspension settle out after some time of mixing. The separation of particles from a suspension is...
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Children at play often make suspensions such as mixtures of mud and water, flour and water, or a suspension of solid pigments in water known as tempera paint. These suspensions are heterogeneous mixtures composed of relatively large particles that are visible to the naked eye or can be seen with a magnifying glass. They are cloudy, and the suspended particles settle out after mixing. On the other hand, a solution is a homogeneous mixture in which no settling occurs and in which the dissolved...
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The formation of a colloidal system is exemplified by an aqueous solution containing Cl− ions is introduced to another containing Ag+ ions, resulting in the precipitation of solid AgCl as extremely tiny crystals. Instead of settling out as a filterable precipitate, these crystals remain suspended in the liquid, showcasing a colloidal system.A colloidal system involves colloidal particles within the approximate range of 1 to 1000 nm in at least one dimension, dispersed in a medium called...
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The high insolubility of some precipitates can result in an unfavorable relative supersaturation. This can lead to colloidal particles with a large surface-to-mass ratio, where adsorption is promoted. For instance, in the precipitation of silver chloride, silver ions are adsorbed on the surface of the colloidal particles, forming a primary layer. This layer attracts ions of opposite charge (such as nitrate ions), forming a diffuse secondary layer of adsorbed ions. This electric double layer...
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Nonideal liquid solutions, also known as real solutions, do not strictly follow Raoult's law. Raoult's law is a rule of thumb in physical chemistry. However, not all mixtures adhere to this law due to varying molecular interactions. For example, in an acetone/chloroform solution, the individual vapor pressures of the components are lower than expected, resulting in a total vapor pressure below that predicted by Raoult's law, causing a negative deviation.On the other hand, in an ethanol/water...
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Blebs are a type of membrane protrusion formed by the internal hydrostatic pressure of the cytoplasm. Blebs are observed in several cell types, including fibroblasts, immune cells, and single-celled organisms like the amoeba. The primary function of blebs is cell locomotion and apoptosis, but they are also found during necrosis and cell division. The life cycle of a bleb comprises an initiation phase followed by the expansion and retraction phases.
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Colloidal spirals in nematic liquid crystals.

Bohdan Senyuk1, Manoj B Pandey1, Qingkun Liu1

  • 1Department of Physics, University of Colorado, Boulder, CO 80309, USA. ivan.smalyukh@colorado.edu.

Soft Matter
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Summary
This summary is machine-generated.

Researchers created novel spiral colloidal particles that self-assemble in nematic fluids. These particles control defect structures and break chiral symmetry, offering new pathways for colloidal self-assembly.

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Area of Science:

  • Colloid Science
  • Soft Matter Physics
  • Materials Science

Background:

  • Nematic colloids research focuses on particle geometry and director deformations for self-assembly.
  • Controlling particle-induced defects is key to understanding colloidal structures.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To design, fabricate, and disperse low-symmetry colloidal particles (spirals) in a nematic fluid.
  • To investigate how particle shape and surface functionalization influence nematic director deformations and defect configurations.
  • To explore the self-assembly behavior driven by these interactions.

Main Methods:

  • Fabrication of spiral, double spiral, and triple spiral colloidal particles.
  • Dispersion of particles in a nematic fluid with controlled surface functionalization (tangential/perpendicular boundary conditions).
  • Observation and analysis of induced director distortions and topological defects (singular and solitonic).

Main Results:

  • Spiral particles induce director distortions and defect configurations with non-chiral or chiral symmetry.
  • Particles exhibit stable and metastable multiple orientational states.
  • Achiral particles cause chiral symmetry breaking through 3D winding of topological defects and solitons.
  • Demonstrated control over the symmetry of particle-generated director configurations.

Conclusions:

  • The symmetry of colloidal particles and their surface interactions dictate the resulting director configurations and defect structures in nematic fluids.
  • Low-symmetry colloidal particles, particularly spirals, can lead to complex self-assembly behaviors and chiral symmetry breaking.
  • Findings offer insights into designing colloidal systems with tunable self-assembly properties based on topological defect control.