Liquid-crystal ordering mediated by self-assembly of surfactant solution confined in nanodroplet: A dissipative particle dynamics study

In recent years, photonic crystal technology has received much attention. In this study, we focus on liquid crystal droplets considered as one of photonic crystals. It was reported that the orientation of liquid crystal molecules can be controlled by covering the droplet surface with surfactant solutions (Moreno-Razo et al. Nature. 2012;485:86). We investigated a system in which surfactant solutions are added to liquid crystal droplets with based on their study. The effect of surfactant concentration on the orientation behaviour of the liquid crystal molecules was observed. Phase transition of liquid crystal was also observed with changes to the temperature of the liquid crystal droplets. Various self-assembled structures and changes in liquid crystal droplet properties were discussed. We believe that the results of our work will help in further pursuing the research on photonic crystal devices.