Imprintable membranes from incomplete chiral coalescence

• Published in: Nature communications 2014-01, Vol.5 (1), p.3063-3063, Article 3063
• Main Authors: Zakhary, Mark J., Gibaud, Thomas, Nadir Kaplan, C., Barry, Edward, Oldenbourg, Rudolf, Meyer, Robert B., Dogic, Zvonimir
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: 639/301/119; 639/766/189; Defects; Humanities and Social Sciences; Lipids; Membranes; multidisciplinary; Science
• ISSN: 2041-1723; 2041-1723
• DOI: 10.1038/ncomms4063

Coalescence is an essential phenomenon that governs the equilibrium behaviour in a variety of systems from intercellular transport to planetary formation. In this report, we study coalescence pathways of circularly shaped two-dimensional colloidal membranes, which are one rod-length-thick liquid-like monolayers of aligned rods. The chirality of the constituent rods leads to three atypical coalescence pathways that are not found in other simple or complex fluids. In particular, we characterize two pathways that do not proceed to completion but instead produce partially joined membranes connected by line defects— π -wall defects or alternating arrays of twisted bridges and pores. We elucidate the structure and energetics of these defects and ascribe their stability to a geometrical frustration inherently present in chiral colloidal membranes. Furthermore, we induce the coalescence process with optical forces, leading to a robust on-demand method for imprinting networks of channels and pores into colloidal membranes. Conventional coalescence at fluid drop and bubble interfaces follows the all-or-none rule. Zakhary et al . show that the coalescence between colloidal membranes composed of aligned rod-like viruses does not follow this rule, but exhibits an intermediate state induced by topological defects.