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Controlling Gaussian and mean curvatures at microscale by sublimation and condensation of smectic liquid crystals

Soft materials with layered structure such as membranes, block copolymers and smectics exhibit intriguing morphologies with nontrivial curvatures. Here, we report restructuring the Gaussian and mean curvatures of smectic A films with free surface in the process of sintering, that is, reshaping at el...

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Autores principales: Kim, Dae Seok, Cha, Yun Jeong, Kim, Mun Ho, Lavrentovich, Oleg D., Yoon, Dong Ki
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Nature Publishing Group 2016
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4725769/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26725975
http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/ncomms10236
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author Kim, Dae Seok
Cha, Yun Jeong
Kim, Mun Ho
Lavrentovich, Oleg D.
Yoon, Dong Ki
author_facet Kim, Dae Seok
Cha, Yun Jeong
Kim, Mun Ho
Lavrentovich, Oleg D.
Yoon, Dong Ki
author_sort Kim, Dae Seok
collection PubMed
description Soft materials with layered structure such as membranes, block copolymers and smectics exhibit intriguing morphologies with nontrivial curvatures. Here, we report restructuring the Gaussian and mean curvatures of smectic A films with free surface in the process of sintering, that is, reshaping at elevated temperatures. The pattern of alternating patches of negative, zero and positive mean curvature of the air–smectic interface has a profound effect on the rate of sublimation. As a result of sublimation, condensation and restructuring, initially equilibrium smectic films with negative and zero Gaussian curvature are transformed into structures with pronounced positive Gaussian curvature of layers packing, which are rare in the samples obtained by cooling from the isotropic melt. The observed relationship between the curvatures, bulk elastic behaviour and interfacial geometries in sintering of smectic liquid crystals might pave the way for new approaches to control soft morphologies at micron and submicron scales.
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spelling pubmed-47257692016-03-04 Controlling Gaussian and mean curvatures at microscale by sublimation and condensation of smectic liquid crystals Kim, Dae Seok Cha, Yun Jeong Kim, Mun Ho Lavrentovich, Oleg D. Yoon, Dong Ki Nat Commun Article Soft materials with layered structure such as membranes, block copolymers and smectics exhibit intriguing morphologies with nontrivial curvatures. Here, we report restructuring the Gaussian and mean curvatures of smectic A films with free surface in the process of sintering, that is, reshaping at elevated temperatures. The pattern of alternating patches of negative, zero and positive mean curvature of the air–smectic interface has a profound effect on the rate of sublimation. As a result of sublimation, condensation and restructuring, initially equilibrium smectic films with negative and zero Gaussian curvature are transformed into structures with pronounced positive Gaussian curvature of layers packing, which are rare in the samples obtained by cooling from the isotropic melt. The observed relationship between the curvatures, bulk elastic behaviour and interfacial geometries in sintering of smectic liquid crystals might pave the way for new approaches to control soft morphologies at micron and submicron scales. Nature Publishing Group 2016-01-04 /pmc/articles/PMC4725769/ /pubmed/26725975 http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/ncomms10236 Text en Copyright © 2016, Nature Publishing Group, a division of Macmillan Publishers Limited. All Rights Reserved. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in the credit line; if the material is not included under the Creative Commons license, users will need to obtain permission from the license holder to reproduce the material. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
spellingShingle Article
Kim, Dae Seok
Cha, Yun Jeong
Kim, Mun Ho
Lavrentovich, Oleg D.
Yoon, Dong Ki
Controlling Gaussian and mean curvatures at microscale by sublimation and condensation of smectic liquid crystals
title Controlling Gaussian and mean curvatures at microscale by sublimation and condensation of smectic liquid crystals
title_full Controlling Gaussian and mean curvatures at microscale by sublimation and condensation of smectic liquid crystals
title_fullStr Controlling Gaussian and mean curvatures at microscale by sublimation and condensation of smectic liquid crystals
title_full_unstemmed Controlling Gaussian and mean curvatures at microscale by sublimation and condensation of smectic liquid crystals
title_short Controlling Gaussian and mean curvatures at microscale by sublimation and condensation of smectic liquid crystals
title_sort controlling gaussian and mean curvatures at microscale by sublimation and condensation of smectic liquid crystals
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4725769/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26725975
http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/ncomms10236
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