Colloidal particles in liquid crystal films and at interfaces

TL;DR

This paper reviews recent theoretical, computational, and experimental advances in understanding colloidal particles in liquid crystal films and interfaces, focusing on interactions, trapping, and assembly mechanisms.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive overview of modeling approaches and experimental findings related to colloids at liquid crystalline interfaces, highlighting new computational techniques and insights.

Findings

Interaction potentials between colloids and interfaces derived from free energy minimization

Insights into colloidal trapping and assembly at liquid crystal interfaces

Development of finite-element methods for modeling colloid-interface interactions

Abstract

This mini-review discusses the recent contribution of theoretical and computational physics as well as experimental efforts to the understanding of the behavior of colloidal particles in confined geometries and at liquid crystalline interfaces. Theoretical approaches used to study trapping, long- and short-range interactions, and assembly of solid particles and liquid inclusions are outlined. As an example, an interaction of a spherical colloidal particle with a nematic-isotropic interface and a pair interaction potential between two colloids at this interface are obtained by minimizing the Landau-de Gennes free energy functional using the finite-element method with adaptive meshes.