Orientation dependent Stokes drag in a colloidal liquid crystal.
Soft Matter
; 4(8): 1602-1604, 2008 Jul 16.
Article
em En
| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-32907150
ABSTRACT
Stokes drag on the (sub)micrometre scale plays a key role in phenomena ranging from Brownian motion to the rheology of particulate suspensions. We report the first measurement of the direction dependent Stokes drag in a nematic liquid crystal of colloidal rods, where the viscous forces are of equal importance to the elastic forces. By tracking a sedimenting sphere with combined fluorescence confocal microscopy and polarization microscopy we find that the Stokes drag for motion along the director is two times larger than for motion perpendicular to the director. This brings the unique viscoelastic properties of a colloidal liquid crystal into focus.
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MEDLINE
Idioma:
En
Ano de publicação:
2008
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Article