Lyotropic chromonic liquid crystals for biological sensing applications
Creator
Shiyanovskii S V; Lavrentovich O D; Schneider T; Ishikawa T; Smalyukh I I; Woolverton C J; Niehaus G D; Doane K J
Publisher
Molecular Crystals and Liquid Crystals
Date
2005
2005
Description
We describe director distortions in the nematic liquid crystal (LC) caused by a spherical particle with tangential surface orientation of the director and show that light transmittance through the distorted region is a steep function of the particle's size. The effect allows us to propose a real-time microbial sensor based on a lyotropic chromonic LC (LCLC) that detects and amplifies the presence of immune complexes. A cassette is filled with LCLC, antibody, and antigen-bearing particles. Small and isolated particles cause no macroscopic distortions of the uniformly aligned LCLC. Upon antibody-antigen binding, the growing immune complexes.