Tetravalent Colloids by Nematic Wetting

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates that nematic wetting layers around spherical particles can naturally form tetrahedral defect configurations, providing an alternative method to produce tetravalent colloids with potential applications in materials science.

Contribution

It reveals that nematic wetting layers around spheres can create tetrahedral defect arrangements, expanding the methods for synthesizing tetravalent colloids beyond surface nematic configurations.

Findings

Tetrahedral defect configurations occur in nematic wetting layers.

Nematic wetting offers an alternative route to tetravalent colloids.

Topological defects are key to colloid valency control.

Abstract

In an elegant paper, D. Nelson suggested a method to produce tetravalent colloids based on a tetrahedral configuration created on the surface of a spherical particle. It emerges from a two-dimensional nematic liquid crystal placed on a sphere due to the presence of four 1/2 disclinations, i.e., topological defects in the orientational order. In this paper we show that such a tetrahedral configuration also occurs in the wetting layers which form around spheres dispersed in a liquid crystal above the nematic-isotropic phase transition. Nematic wetting therefore offers an alternative route towards tetravalent colloids.