Confinement effects on the phase behavior of collagen-like semiflexible polymers

Semiflexible polymers often self-assemble into aligned structures with emergent mechanical and optical properties. These properties depend on the particular molecular arrangement they form. Indeed, the main structural component of bone, skin and corneas is collagen, but their mechanical and optical properties are vastly different because of the way these molecules are arranged. In this talk, we discuss the phase behavior of collagen-like semi-flexible polymers in the presence or absence of confinement, focusing on isotropic, nematic and cholesteric phases. Using self-consistent field theory, we first investigate phase boundaries and locate regions where each arrangement is stable or metastable. We then consider confinement effects by introducing planar walls. Our results suggest that the presence of planar walls reduces allowed alignment directions to being parallel with the wall, allowing the ordering direction to be uniquely set by the geometry of the experimental setup. We discuss how they can be used to tailor materials.