20.500.12556/RUL-125441 Ionically charged topological defects in nematic fluids Charge profiles in liquid electrolytes are of crucial importance for applications such as supercapacitors, fuel cells, batteries, or the self-assembly of particles in colloidal or biological settings. However, creating localized (screened) charge profiles in the bulk of such electrolytes generally requires the presence of surfaces—for example, provided by colloidal particles or outer surfaces of the material—which poses a fundamental constraint on the material design. Here, we show that topological defects in nematic electrolytes can perform as regions for local charge separation, forming charged defect cores and, in some geometries, even electric multilayers, as opposed to the electric double layers found in isotropic electrolytes. Using a Landau-de Gennes-Poisson-Boltzmann theoretical framework, we show that ions highly effectively couple with the topological defect cores via ion solvability and with the local director-field distortions of the defects via flexoelectricity. The defect charging is shown for different defect types—lines, points, and walls—using geometries of ionically screened flat isotropic-nematic interfaces, radial hedgehog point defects, and half-integer wedge disclinations in the bulk and as stabilized by (charged) colloidal particles. More generally, our findings are relevant for possible applications where topological defects act as diffuse ionic capacitors or as ionic charge carriers. condensed matter physics nematic liquid crystals topological defects electrostatic double layer chemical physics materials science soft matter electrostatic double layer forces flexoelectricity charged colloids interfaces condensed matter materials applied physics polymers fizika kondenzirane snovi nematski tekoči kristali topološki defekti elektrostatska dvojna plast true false true Angleški jezik Slovenski jezik Članek v reviji 2021-03-17 10:38:53 2021-03-17 10:38:54 2023-03-20 12:11:45 0000-00-00 00:00:00 2021 0 0 17 str. iss. 1, art. 011054 Vol. 11 2021 0000-00-00 Zaloznikova Objavljeno NiDoloceno 0000-00-00 0000-00-00 0000-00-00 538.9 2160-3308 10.1103/PhysRevX.11.011054 55545603 19686152 RAZ_Everts_Jeffrey_Christopher_2021.pdf RAZ_Everts_Jeffrey_Christopher_2021.pdf 1 720402A2F3A0E35D87A20DD8B7E8B37E b6cfacac0df9270439640879e7191a2096ef238e7216ca1117cb73afe11e3ec2 b67148c1-a1bb-11eb-a523-00155dcfd717 https://repozitorij.uni-lj.si/Dokument.php?lang=slv&id=141161 https://journals.aps.org/prx/abstract/10.1103/PhysRevX.11.011054 1 https://repozitorij.uni-lj.si/Dokument.php?lang=slv&id=141162 Fakulteta za matematiko in fiziko 0 0 0