Elasticity and Viscosity of DNA Liquid Crystals
2020
Concentrated
solutions of blunt-ended DNA oligomer duplexes self-assemble in living
polymers and order into lyotropic nematic liquid crystal phase. Using
the optical torque provided by three distinct illumination geometries,
we induce independent splay, twist, and bend deformations of the DNA
nematic and measure the corresponding elastic coefficients K1, K2, and K3, and viscosities ηsplay,
ηtwist, and ηbend. We find the viscoelasticity
of the system to be remarkably soft, as the viscoelastic coefficients
are smaller than in other lyotropic liquid crystals. We find K1 > K3 > K2, in agreement with the elasticity of the nematic
phase of flexible polymers, and ηbend > ηsplay > ηtwist a behavior that is nonconventional
in the context of chromonic, polymeric, and thermotropic liquid crystals,
indicating a possible role of the weakness and reversibility of the
DNA aggregates.
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