# Liquid-crystal enabled electrophoresis: Scenarios for driving and reconfigurable assembling of colloids

## TL;DR

This paper explores how liquid crystals enable controlled movement and reconfiguration of colloids through nonlinear electrophoresis and photoactivated steering, demonstrating applications like cargo transport and dynamic assembly.

## Contribution

It introduces a novel combination of electrophoretic and photoactivation techniques for driving and steering colloids in liquid crystals, enabling reconfigurable assemblies.

## Key findings

- Water microdroplets can be transported for cargo release
- Colloidal assemblies can be reconfigured with light patterns
- Demonstrates controllable colloid steering in liquid crystals

## Abstract

We demonstrate several examples of driving and steering of colloids when dispersed in nematic liquid crystals. The driving mechanism is based on the principle of nonlinear electrophoresis which is mediated by the asymmetry in the structure of the defects that the inclusions generate in the host elastic matrix. The steering mechanism originates in the photoactivation of the anchoring conditions of the nematic liquid crystal on one of the enclosing plates. As experimental realizations we first review a scenario of water microdroplets being phoretically transported for cargo release and chemical reaction. Steering is illustrated in terms of the reconfigurable assembly of colloidal particles, either in the form of asters or rotating-mills, commanded by predesigned patterns of illumination.