Paradoxes for Chromonic Liquid Crystal Droplets

Abstract

Chromonic liquid crystals constitute a novel lyotropic phase, whose elastic properties have so far been modeled within the classical Oseen-Frank theory, provided that the twist constant is assumed to be considerably smaller than the saddle-splay constant, in violation of one Ericksen inequality. This paper shows that paradoxical consequences follow from such a violation for droplets of these materials surrounded by an isotropic fluid. For example, tactoids with a degenerate planar anchoring simply disintegrate indefinitely in myriads of smaller ones.