Tuning Molecular Orientation Responses of Microfluidic Liquid Crystal Dispersions to Colloid and Polymer Flows

An important approach to molecular diagnostics is integrating organized substances that provide complex molecular level responses to introduced chemical and biological agents with conditions that optimize and distinguish such responses. In this respect, liquid crystal dispersions are attractive components of molecular diagnostic tools. This paper analyzes a colloid system, containing a nematic liquid crystal as a dispersed phase, and aqueous surfactant and polymer solutions as the continuous phases. We applied a microfluidic approach for tuning orientation of liquid crystal molecules in picoliter droplets immobilized on microchannel walls. Introduction of surfactant to the aqueous phase was found to proportionally increase the order parameter of liquid crystal molecules in microdroplets. Infusion of polymer solutions into surfactant-mediated microfluidic liquid crystal dispersions increased the order parameter at much lower surfactant concentrations, while further infusion of surfactant solutions randomized the orientation of liquid crystal molecules. These effects were correlated with the adsorption of surfactant molecules on surfaces of microdroplets, stabilizing the effect of a polymer matrix on bound surfactant ions and the formation of insoluble polymer–colloid aggregates, respectively. The revealed molecular behavior of liquid crystal dispersions may contribute to optimized synthesis of responsive liquid crystal dispersions for in-flow molecular diagnostics of polymers and colloids, and the development of functional laboratory-on-chip prototypes.