Local high-density distributions of phospholipids induced by the nucleation and growth of smectic liquid crystals at the interface  

作　　者：Chenjing Yang Li Chen Rui Zhang Dong Chen Laura R.Arriaga David A.Weitz 

机构地区：[1]College of Energy Engineering and State Key Laboratory of Fluid Power and Mechatronic Systems,Zhejiang University,Hangzhou 310027,China [2]Zhejiang Key Laboratory of Smart BioMaterials and Center for Bionanoengineering,College of Chemical and Biological Engineering,Zhejiang University,Hangzhou 310027,China [3]Department of Theoretical Condensed Matter Physics,Condensed Matter Physics Center and Instituto Nicolás Cabrera,Universidad Autónoma de Madrid,Madrid 28049,Spain [4]John A.Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences and Department of Physics,Harvard University,Cambridge,MA 02138,United States [5]Department of Physics,The Hong Kong University of Science&Technology,Hong Kong,China

出　　处：《Chinese Chemical Letters》2022年第8期3973-3976,共4页中国化学快报（英文版）

基　　金：supported by Zhejiang Provincial Natural Science Foundation of China(No.LY20B060027);National Natural Science Foundation of China(No.21878258);the Spanish Ministry of Economy MINECO for a Juan de la Cierva-Incorporacion Fellowship(No.IJCI-2014-22461);supported by the National Science Foundation(No.DMR1310266);the Harvard Materials Research Science and Engineering Center(No.DMR-1420570)。

摘　　要：Amphiphilic molecules adsorbed at the interface could control the orientation of liquid crystals(LCs)while LCs in turn could influence the distributions of amphiphilic molecules.The studies on the interactions between liquid crystals and amphiphilic molecules at the interface are important for the development of molecular sensors.In this paper,we demonstrate that the development of smectic LC ordering from isotropic at the LC/water interface could induce local high-density distributions of amphiphilic phospholipids.Mixtures of liquid crystals and phospholipids in chloroform are first emulsified in water.By fluorescently labeling the phospholipids adsorbed at the interface,their distributions are visualized under fluorescent confocal microscope.Interestingly,local high-density distributions of phospholipids showing a high fluorescent intensity are observed on the surface of LC droplets.Investigations on the correlation between phospholipid density,surface tension and smectic LC ordering suggest that when domains of smectic LC layers nucleate and grow from isotropic at the LC/water interface as chloroform slowly evaporates at room temperature,phospholipids transition from liquid-expanded to liquid-condensed phases in response to the smectic ordering,which induces a higher surface tension at the interface.The results will provide an important insight into the interactions between liquid crystals and amphiphilic molecules at the interface.

关 键 词：Liquid crystals PHOSPHOLIPIDS DROPLET INTERFACE SMECTIC 

分 类 号：O641.3[理学—物理化学]