Phase separation of a nematic liquid crystal in the self-assembly of lysozyme in a drying aqueous solution drop

MRS Communications volume 9, pages150–158(2019)Cite this article

Abstract

This paper discusses the unique patterns evolved through phase separation of a bulk liquid crystal (LC) from the self-assembly of lysozyme induced by evaporation of de-ionized water only. Each domain shows a central dark region surrounded by bright regions (randomly oriented LC droplets). The birefringence intensity reveals three regimes (a slow increase, rapid rise, then saturation) not seen without LC droplets. The textural study exhibits a simple exponential behavior that changes as a function of LC concentration. Furthermore, in the presence of LC, the crack patterns are found to be different near the drop edge than those in the central region.

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Author information

Affiliations

  1. Order-Disorder Phenomena Laboratory, Department of Physics, Worcester Polytechnic Institute, Worcester, MA, 01609, USA

    Anusuya Pal & Germano S. Iannacchione

  2. Department of English and Foreign Languages, Tezpur University, Tezpur, Assam, 784028, India

    Amalesh Gope

  3. Massachusetts Academy of Math and Science at WPI, Worcester, MA, 01605, USA

    Rumani Kafle

Authors
  1. Anusuya Pal
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  2. Amalesh Gope
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  3. Rumani Kafle
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  4. Germano S. Iannacchione
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Germano S. Iannacchione.

Additional information

A video of the time evolution of the drying process is available in Supplementary section.

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Supplementary material

The supplementary material for this article can be found at https://doi.org/10.1557/mrc.2019.18.

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Pal, A., Gope, A., Kafle, R. et al. Phase separation of a nematic liquid crystal in the self-assembly of lysozyme in a drying aqueous solution drop. MRS Communications 9, 150–158 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1557/mrc.2019.18

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