Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-7cvxr Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-27T01:54:42.046Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Simulation of chiral liquid crystal self-assembly: analogies with the structural formation of biological fibrous composites

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 February 2011

Gino De Luca  and
Alejandro D. Rey
Gino De Luca
Affiliation:
Department of Chemical Engineering, McGill University, 3610 University Street, Montreal, Quebec Canada H3A 2B2
Alejandro D. Rey
Affiliation:
Department of Chemical Engineering, McGill University, 3610 University Street, Montreal, Quebec Canada H3A 2B2
Get access

Abstract

The wide majority of biological fibrous composites exhibit twisted plywood architectures (planar or cylindrical) for mechanical reasons [1–5]. These supramolecular organizations originate from the passage of the extracellular matrix (surrounding the chiral fibrous molecules) trough a lyotropic cholesteric liquid crystalline mesophase during the structure formation process [1–5]. In this work, we used the well-established Landau-de Gennes theory of liquid crystals in order to develop a fundamental understanding of the supramolecular self-assembly process leading to the planar monodomain (defect-free) twisted plywood architecture [6]. Simulations illustrate the importance of constraining surface in the formation of defect-free (mechanically effective) composites. These results provide a better understanding of tissue morphogenesis which is highly desirable for the development of new bio-inspired synthetic composites.

Type
Research Article
Information
MRS Online Proceedings Library (OPL) , Volume 735: Symposium C – Bioinspired Nanoscale Hybrid Systems , 2002 , C7.4
Copyright
Copyright © Materials Research Society 2003

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFENCENCES

[1] Neville, A.C., Biology of Fibrous Composites, (Cambridge University Press, 1993).Google Scholar
[2] Bouligand, Y., Liquid crystalline order in biological materials, in Liquid Crystalline Order in Polymers, edited by Blumestein, A., (Academic Press New York, 1978).Google Scholar
[3] Giraud-Guille, M.M., Int. Rev. Cytol. 166, 59 (1996).Google Scholar
[4] Giraud-Guille, M.M., Calcif. Tissue Int. 42, 167 (1988).Google Scholar
[5] Cowin, S.C., J. Biomed. Eng. 122, 533 (2000).Google Scholar
[6] Neville, A.C., Tissue Cell 20, 133 (1988).Google Scholar
[7] Elices, M., Structural Biological Materials: Design and Structure-Property Relationships, (Pergamon, 2000).Google Scholar
[8] de Gennes, P.G. and Prost, J., The Physics of Liquid Crystals, 2nd ed., (Oxford University Press, 1993).Google Scholar
[9] Wright, D. C., Mermin, N. D., Rev. Mod. Phys. 61, 385 (1989).Google Scholar
[10] Doi, M., and Edwards, S. F., Theory of Polymer Dynamics, (Oxford University Press, 1987).Google Scholar
[11] De Luca, G., Rey, A.D., submitted to Phys. Rev. E, Nov. 2002.Google Scholar