# Deformation and chaining of flexible shells in a nematic solvent

## TL;DR

This paper develops a continuum model to study how elastic shells deform and form chains in a nematic liquid crystal, revealing how material properties influence shape and alignment, with predictions matching experimental results.

## Contribution

It introduces a finite element-based continuum theory for flexible shells in nematic solvents, including multi-body interactions and alignment predictions, improving upon previous models.

## Key findings

- Shell deformation depends on elasticity and anchoring conditions.
- Predicted chain alignment angles match experimental data.
- Model accurately captures multi-body interactions in nematic environments.

## Abstract

A micrometer-scale elastic shell immersed in a nematic liquid crystal may be deformed by the host if the cost of deformation is comparable to the cost of elastic deformation of the nematic. Moreover, such inclusions interact and form chains due to quadrupolar distortions induced in the host. A continuum theory model using finite elements is developed for this system, using mesh regularization and dynamic refinement to ensure quality of the numerical representation even for large deformations. From this model, we determine the influence of the shell elasticity, nematic elasticity and anchoring condition on the shape of the shell and hence extract parameter values from an experimental realization. Extending the model to multi-body interactions, we predict the alignment angle of the chain with respect to the host nematic as a function of aspect ratio, which is found to be in excellent agreement with experiments and greatly improves upon previous theoretical predictions.