Viviana Palacio-Betancur

PhD Candidate @UChicagoPME. Fulbright fellow @FulbrightCol. ChemE from @MedellinUNAL @fminas. Working on simulations of liquid crystalline systems.

[Viviana Palacio-Betancur @vpalaciob]

@BagPhos Here!

[Viviana Palacio-Betancur @vpalaciob]

Our latest on the interplay of confinement and chirality is on this week's front cover! @JuandePablo6 @UChicagoPME

[Soft Matter @softmatter]

This week's front cover article, Curvature and confinement effects on chiral liquid crystal morphologies led by Viviana Palacio-Betancur, Julio C. Armas-Pérez, Juan P. Hernández-Ortiz and Juan J. de Pablo @Uchicago https://t.co/YNMR3JIjHK

[Viviana Palacio-Betancur @vpalaciob]

@softmatter @UChicago @UChicagoPME @JuandePablo6

[Soft Matter @softmatter]

This week's front cover article, Curvature and confinement effects on chiral liquid crystal morphologies led by Viviana Palacio-Betancur, Julio C. Armas-Pérez, Juan P. Hernández-Ortiz and Juan J. de Pablo @Uchicago https://t.co/YNMR3JIjHK

[Viviana Palacio-Betancur @vpalaciob]

Made it to the PME website! Our most recent paper in @softmatter in which we use confinement and curvature to mold liquid crystals into helical morphologies.

[UChicago Pritzker Molecular Engineering @UChicagoPME]

In recent work published in @softmatter, @JuandePablo6's group at @uchicagopme manipulate liquid crystals defects to explore new optical technologies. - https://t.co/lUuW8EyEEP

[Viviana Palacio-Betancur @vpalaciob]

I successfully defended my Ph.D. thesis last week! It was a great privilege to share my science and celebrate with many colleagues, friends, and family present. Grateful for the incredible support throughout the years and excited for what's next! 😎

[Viviana Palacio-Betancur @vpalaciob]

One of the exciting things at this year's APS was being recognized for our poster on simulating color POM of liquid crystals. Thanks to @ApsDsoft for organizing a great poster session and to the judges for their interest! 🖥️🔬 #APSMarch2023 @JuandePablo6

[Viviana Palacio-Betancur @vpalaciob]

@FergLab Good question! So here we used a Poiseuille flow as a starting point, since the relationship between flow and order is not straight forward. The other flows you mentioned are very interesting, especially considering that stagnation points could be a source for defect creation.

[Viviana Palacio-Betancur @vpalaciob]

Excited to participate in my first virtual poster session today! Here is my #MolEngPoster2020 #RSCPoster exploring how to direct the assembly of nanoparticles when immersed in a nematic channel and under a pressure-driven flow. I'll break it down below 🧵👇.

[Viviana Palacio-Betancur @vpalaciob]

The #MolEngPoster2020 session is still going! Lmk if you have questions about how we predict and find new ways of assembling nanoparticles in a LC media. 👩‍🔬🖥️

[Viviana Palacio-Betancur @vpalaciob]

Excited to participate in my first virtual poster session today! Here is my #MolEngPoster2020 #RSCPoster exploring how to direct the assembly of nanoparticles when immersed in a nematic channel and under a pressure-driven flow. I'll break it down below 🧵👇.

[Viviana Palacio-Betancur @vpalaciob]

In conclusion, you could use the channel dimensions to control how/when the particles assemble, and the flow strength to establish the height of the energetic barrier. All of this while being able to preserve the defect structure, too!

[Viviana Palacio-Betancur @vpalaciob]

We do this through simulations. The nematic order is coupled to the velocity using the Stark-Lubensky theory, and implemented in a Finite Element framework. We use the Ericksen number to identify different regimes: Er<1 the LC elasticity prevails, Er>1 viscosity dominates.

[Viviana Palacio-Betancur @vpalaciob]

And if we think about larger assemblies, we see that the behavior from before still applies! Three particles will assemble in a "2+1" fashion, when once a pair is formed is will attract the third particle.

[Viviana Palacio-Betancur @vpalaciob]

In the past, these defects around the nanoparticles have been used as anchoring sited to form 1D or 2D structures @ equilibrium. In this case, we want to use confinement and a hydrodynamic field to control the assembly.

[Viviana Palacio-Betancur @vpalaciob]

A liquid crystal shows a natural tendency to align uniformly, and this order is altered by external fields (temperature, pressure), a confining surface, or the presence of nanoparticles. When the order mismatches, we get defects which are regions of high elastic energy.