Highly mono-dispersed liquid crystal capsules with core-shell structure

Microfluidics have driven innovations in various fields including biology, soft-matter, and micro-chemical processes. Microfluidic systems provide a unique research environment for micro-scale liquid droplets. Especially encapsulated liquid crystal (LC) droplet fabrication, which can provide a considerable advancement for the relevant fundamental study and applications. We demonstrate the fabrication of uniform sized LC droplets using a microfluidic device system with a T-shaped junction micro-channel. The droplet size can be controlled by changing the flow rate of two immiscible fluids. Also, by adjusting the device's geometrical structure, a desired droplet size can be obtained. The principle of generation of the droplet and the factors that determine the size of the droplet are theoretically briefly explained. These produced LC droplets were encapsulated by the complex coacervation method. The thickness of the fabricated capsule shell was about 1 mu m. The texture transition of the encapsulated mono-dispersed droplets driven by in-plane field shows their potential for various applications, such as various fields of display and biotechnology.