Flow-induced order–order transitions in amyloid fibril liquid crystalline tactoids

• Published in: Nature communications Vol. 11; no. 1; pp. 5416 - 9
• Main Authors: Almohammadi, Hamed, Bagnani, Massimo, Mezzenga, Raffaele
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: London Nature Publishing Group UK 27.10.2020; Nature Publishing Group; Nature Portfolio
• Subjects: 147/3; 639/301/923/1029; 639/301/923/614; 639/301/923/916; 639/301/923/919; Aspect ratio; Crystal structure; Crystallinity; Crystals; Deformation; Droplets; Elongation; Equilibrium conditions; Free energy; Humanities and Social Sciences; Liquid crystals; Microfluidics; multidisciplinary; Nucleation; Phase diagrams; Phase transitions; Science; Science (multidisciplinary); Surface tension
• DOI: 10.1038/s41467-020-19213-x
• ISSN: 2041-1723

Liquid crystalline droplets, also known as tactoids, forming by nucleation and growth within the phase diagram region where isotropic and nematic phases coexist, challenge our understanding of liquid crystals under confinement due to anisotropic surface boundaries at vanishingly small interfacial tension, resulting in complex, non-spherical shapes. Little is known about their dynamical properties, since they are mostly studied under quiescent, quasi-equilibrium conditions. Here we show that different classes of amyloid based nematic and cholesteric tactoids undergo order–order transitions by flow-induced deformations of their shape. Tactoids align under extensional flow, undergoing extreme deformation into highly elongated prolate shapes, with the cholesteric pitch decreasing as an inverse power-law of the tactoids aspect ratio. Free energy functional theory and experimental measurements are combined to rationalize the critical elongation above which the director-field configuration of tactoids transforms from bipolar and uniaxial cholesteric to homogenous and to debate on the thermodynamic nature of these transitions. Tactoids are liquid crystal droplets with nearly vanishing interfacial tension. Almohammadi et al. show using a microfluidic focusing device how to manipulate them gently enough to facilitate the study of amyloid liquid crystal phase transitions subject to non-equilibirum forcing and shape changes.