Assembly of confined nanoparticles in nematic phases

The study of nematic phases covers diverse branches of academics. Form a purely academical standpoint, the morphologies exhibited by this material are the most direct and tangible way of demonstrating algebraic topology. From experimental work, this material is the perfect messenger of molecular events since any occurrence on the surface of the system modifies the molecular orientation and the effects of this change is felt over macroscopic distances thus emitting a different optical signal. From the theoretical point of view, the behavior of nematic phases is found in a wide variety of materials, specially in biological materials, thus any model that represents different phases in an accurate matter serves for the prediction of equilibrium states that later can be harnessed in technological applications. In this thesis we focus on the study of confined nematics from the theoretical point of view using a free energy functional in the continuum scale. The free energy minimization is done with two methods: a relaxation that stems from the Euler--Lagrange equations, and a novel theoretically informed Monte Carlo method. The results presented here consist on a numerical analysis of meshfree interpolation schemes in 3D, and a formulation of a new methodology that allows the calculation of gradients with high accuracy and efficiency. The second part of this document is dedicated to the analysis of confined chiral nematics, specially focused on the effect curvature has on the formation of blue phases. The third part consists on the study of nematic colloids, more specifically nanoparticles adsorbed in bipolar droplets in order to determine self-assembled structures.

• Autores: Palacio Betancur, Viviana
• Fecha de publicación: 2016
• Institución: Universidad Nacional de Colombia
• Repositorio: Universidad Nacional de Colombia
• Idioma: spa
• OAI Identifier: oai:repositorio.unal.edu.co:unal/59896
• Acceso en línea: https://repositorio.unal.edu.co/handle/unal/59896; http://bdigital.unal.edu.co/57708/
• Palabra clave: 66 Ingeniería química y Tecnologías relacionadas/ Chemical engineering; Nematic Liquid Crystals; Free energy functionals; Computational physics
• Rights: openAccess
• License: Atribución-NoComercial 4.0 Internacional