Motion of active Janus colloids in lyotropic chromonic liquid crystals.

The emergence of active nematics has gathered a lot of attention. An exciting recent development in this field was the creation of living liquid crystals - that combines rod-shaped bacteria with water based liquid crystal which give arise to active nematic phase. Here I will be talking about building a similar system, based on synthetic spherical Janus colloids moving in lyotropic chromonic liquid crystal disodium cromoglycate (DSCG). We use Pt coated Janus microspheres, that are chemically triggered by the presence of hydrogen peroxide and track their motion in the nematic phase of DSCG using polarized microscopy. Our studies on individual behavior reveal that the local liquid crystal orientation dictates the direction of motion of the Janus colloids.