Controlled Release of Photo-Responsive Nematic Liquid Crystalline Microcapsules

Abstract

Nematic liquid crystalline (NLC) core-shell microcapsules show the unavoidable orientational defects (disclinations) derived from the topological requirements of a 2-D sphere. We aim to control NLC microcapsules by using the response of the disclination to external-stimuli. For the sake of this, a microcapsule of NLC doped with a photo-responsive azo compound was prepared for UV-light-triggered release action of the microcapsule content; the core aqueous droplet was released to the outer phase through the disturbance of the nematic ordering locally induced by the UV-light irradiation.