Ionically Charged Topological Defects in Nematic Fluids

Charge profiles in liquid electrolytes are of crucial importance for applications such as supercapacitors, fuel cells, batteries, or the self-assembly of particles in colloidal or biological settings. However, creating localized (screened) charge profiles in the bulk of such electrolytes generally r...

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Autores principales:	Jeffrey C. Everts, Miha Ravnik
Formato:	article
Lenguaje:	EN
Publicado:	American Physical Society 2021
Materias:	Physics QC1-999
Acceso en línea:	https://doaj.org/article/c361f33bf3ed45e78fe506eda40aba80
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spelling	oai:doaj.org-article:c361f33bf3ed45e78fe506eda40aba802021-12-02T13:33:33ZIonically Charged Topological Defects in Nematic Fluids10.1103/PhysRevX.11.0110542160-3308https://doaj.org/article/c361f33bf3ed45e78fe506eda40aba802021-03-01T00:00:00Zhttp://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevX.11.011054http://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevX.11.011054https://doaj.org/toc/2160-3308Charge profiles in liquid electrolytes are of crucial importance for applications such as supercapacitors, fuel cells, batteries, or the self-assembly of particles in colloidal or biological settings. However, creating localized (screened) charge profiles in the bulk of such electrolytes generally requires the presence of surfaces—for example, provided by colloidal particles or outer surfaces of the material—which poses a fundamental constraint on the material design. Here, we show that topological defects in nematic electrolytes can perform as regions for local charge separation, forming charged defect cores and, in some geometries, even electric multilayers, as opposed to the electric double layers found in isotropic electrolytes. Using a Landau-de Gennes-Poisson-Boltzmann theoretical framework, we show that ions highly effectively couple with the topological defect cores via ion solvability and with the local director-field distortions of the defects via flexoelectricity. The defect charging is shown for different defect types—lines, points, and walls—using geometries of ionically screened flat isotropic-nematic interfaces, radial hedgehog point defects, and half-integer wedge disclinations in the bulk and as stabilized by (charged) colloidal particles. More generally, our findings are relevant for possible applications where topological defects act as diffuse ionic capacitors or as ionic charge carriers.Jeffrey C. EvertsMiha RavnikAmerican Physical SocietyarticlePhysicsQC1-999ENPhysical Review X, Vol 11, Iss 1, p 011054 (2021)
institution	DOAJ
collection	DOAJ
language	EN
topic	Physics QC1-999
spellingShingle	Physics QC1-999 Jeffrey C. Everts Miha Ravnik Ionically Charged Topological Defects in Nematic Fluids
description	Charge profiles in liquid electrolytes are of crucial importance for applications such as supercapacitors, fuel cells, batteries, or the self-assembly of particles in colloidal or biological settings. However, creating localized (screened) charge profiles in the bulk of such electrolytes generally requires the presence of surfaces—for example, provided by colloidal particles or outer surfaces of the material—which poses a fundamental constraint on the material design. Here, we show that topological defects in nematic electrolytes can perform as regions for local charge separation, forming charged defect cores and, in some geometries, even electric multilayers, as opposed to the electric double layers found in isotropic electrolytes. Using a Landau-de Gennes-Poisson-Boltzmann theoretical framework, we show that ions highly effectively couple with the topological defect cores via ion solvability and with the local director-field distortions of the defects via flexoelectricity. The defect charging is shown for different defect types—lines, points, and walls—using geometries of ionically screened flat isotropic-nematic interfaces, radial hedgehog point defects, and half-integer wedge disclinations in the bulk and as stabilized by (charged) colloidal particles. More generally, our findings are relevant for possible applications where topological defects act as diffuse ionic capacitors or as ionic charge carriers.
format	article
author	Jeffrey C. Everts Miha Ravnik
author_facet	Jeffrey C. Everts Miha Ravnik
author_sort	Jeffrey C. Everts
title	Ionically Charged Topological Defects in Nematic Fluids
title_short	Ionically Charged Topological Defects in Nematic Fluids
title_full	Ionically Charged Topological Defects in Nematic Fluids
title_fullStr	Ionically Charged Topological Defects in Nematic Fluids
title_full_unstemmed	Ionically Charged Topological Defects in Nematic Fluids
title_sort	ionically charged topological defects in nematic fluids
publisher	American Physical Society
publishDate	2021
url	https://doaj.org/article/c361f33bf3ed45e78fe506eda40aba80
work_keys_str_mv	AT jeffreyceverts ionicallychargedtopologicaldefectsinnematicfluids AT miharavnik ionicallychargedtopologicaldefectsinnematicfluids
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Ionically Charged Topological Defects in Nematic Fluids

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