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Drying colloidal droplets have a wide range of applications from medical diagnostics to coatings for industries. This paper explores the effects of the substrate temperature (ranging from $25$ to $55 ^{\circ}$C) and various initial concentrations ($\phi$) of $1$ to $20$ wt% of lysozyme in an aqueous solution on its drying and final dried film state using bright-field optical microscopy. The $\phi$ is divided into three regimes, ultra-concentrated ($20$ $<$ $\phi$ $\leq$ $17$ wt%), concentrated ($17$ $<$ $\phi$ $\leq$ $9$ wt%) and diluted ($9$ $<$ $\phi$ $\leq$ $1$ wt%). Increasing $\phi$ in these regimes finds that this movement in the later non-linear region slows down as the front carries and deposits protein molecules until the supply in solution is exhausted. In the ultra-concentrated regime, the fluid front moves linearly throughout the drying process. The deposition of protein onto the surface by the fluid front creates the "coffee-ring" and increases with increasing $\phi$. A dimple is observed in a central mound-structure, which grows with increasing $\phi$. As the temperature increases the drying rate increases, reducing the time for convective flow and the deposition of material at the fluid front. Interestingly, at (T, $\phi$) = ($55 ^{\circ}$C, $20$ wt%), the droplet forms the thickest film with suppressed ring formation. The dimple diminishes in the ultra-concentrated regime, whereas it changes to an expanded spot in some samples of the diluted and concentrated regimes with elevated temperatures. Both initial concentration and substrate temperature lead to surface tension and temperature gradients across the droplet, affecting the morphological patterns. This study provides insights into protein-protein and protein-substrate interactions driven by temperature and concentration for biomedical and biosensing applications.

The process of drying is a simple physical mechanism that drives a system to relax from one equilibrium point to another. The native states of the constituent particles in the droplets can be linked to the emergent morphological patterns via this drying process. This paper explores the interplay between different initial concentrations of a globular protein lysozyme ($\phi_p$) and the salts ($\phi_s$) in the phosphate buffer saline (PBS). The $\phi_s$ = 0 wt% embodies the lysozyme solution prepared in de-ionized water. The samples at $\phi_s$ = 0.9 wt% display a dark texture in the central region. We examined the drying evolution and dried morphology by extracting the mean gray values (I) and standard deviation (SD). For this, $\phi_p$ was fixed at 9.0 wt%, and only the $\phi_s$ were varied. The I decreases, and the SD increases as the salt crystals start appearing during the drying process. The phase separation of these salts directly maps with this textural evolution and is influenced by the salts' amount in these droplets. The scanning electron microscopic images of the dried films at $\phi_s$ = 0.5 wt% at different $\phi_p$ show that the lysozyme-salt interactions drop off in the ring region. This ring becomes more apparent with the increasing $\phi_p$. Though all the droplets show "coffee-ring" behavior, the leftover lysozyme particles indicated with the mound-like structure diminishes in the salts' presence. The alteration of the crack patterns is also found. Therefore, the chemistry between multiple salts and lysozyme at various initial concentrations reveals that the features are not merely a sum (or average) of individual microscopic actions. It appears to involve both protein-protein and protein-salt interactions partially averaged over one length/time scale that sets the next larger/longer length/time scale in such drying droplets.

A bio-colloidal drying droplet can be used as a pre-diagnostic technique. However, a successful clinical setting requires a fundamental understanding of the final morphology and the way it is related to the initial state of the constituents present in the droplet. This chapter focuses on the physics associated with different pattern formations in the globular protein, bovine serum albumin (BSA) at different phosphate-buffered saline concentrations. The study reports that the first-order statistics (FOS) and the gray level co-occurrence matrix (GLCM) analysis are capable of capturing structural changes of the droplets. While the FOS of the image depends on the individual pixels, the GLCM summarizes both tonal and structural relationships between the neighboring pixels. The horizontal and the vertical orientations of the GLCM parameters show a non-significant effect when the pixel displacement is $\leq$ 1. Interestingly, two local equilibrium-like regions (the rim and the central regions) appear when these droplets approach the steady-state. The bimodal distribution confirms that the BSA-BSA interactions are dominant (recessive) over the BSA-saline interactions in the rim (central) regions that result in the phase-separated aggregation of the BSA particles in the presence of the salts.

Pattern formation in drying protein droplets continues to attract considerable research attention because it can be linked to specific protein-protein interactions. An extensive study of the drying evolution and the final crack patterns are presented, highlighting the concentration dependence (from 1 to 13 wt%) on two globular proteins, lysozyme (Lys) and bovine serum albumin (BSA), in de-ionized water. The drying evolution starts with a constant contact radius mode and shifts to a mixed mode where both fluid front and contact angle changes. The contact angle monotonically decreases, whereas, the fluid front exhibits two regimes: an initial linear regime and a later nonlinear regime. Unlike the linear regime, the non-linear regime is faster for Lys droplets. This results in the formation of a "mound"-like structure in the central region. A new feature, a "dimple" is observed in this mound which is found to be dependent on the initial concentration. The different crack morphology of BSA and Lys depends strongly on the initial state of the solution and can be interpreted using a simple mechanical model. In fact, when dried under uniform conditions (surface, humidity, temperature, droplet diameter, etc.), the evolution and the final pattern displays as a fingerprint of the initial state., Comment: 26 pages, 7 figures, Under Review

Image processing and pattern recognition offer a useful and versatile method for optically characterizing drops of a colloidal solution during the drying process and in its final state. This paper exploits image processing techniques applied to cross-polarizing microscopy to probe birefringence and the bright-field microscopy to examine the morphological patterns. The bio-colloidal solution of interest is a mixture of water, liquid crystal (LC) and three different proteins [lysozyme (Lys), myoglobin (Myo), and bovine serum albumin (BSA)], all at a fixed relative concentration. During the drying process, the LC phase separates and becomes optically active detectable through its birefringence. Further, as the protein concentrates, it forms cracks under strain due to the evaporation of water. The mean intensity profile of the drying process is examined using an automated image processing technique that reveals three unique regimes: a steady upsurge, a speedy rise, and an eventual saturation. The high values of standard deviation show the complexity, the roughness, and inhomogeneity of the image surface. A semi-automated image processing technique is proposed to quantify the distance between the consecutive cracks by converting those into high contrast images. The outcome of the image analysis correlates with the initial state of the mixture, the nature of the proteins, and the mechanical response of the final patterns. The paper reveals new insights on the self-assembly of the macromolecules during the drying mechanism of any aqueous solution.

Activity in the brain propagates as waves of firing neurons, namely avalanches. These waves' size and duration distributions have been experimentally shown to display a stable power-law profile, long-range correlations and $1/f^{b}$ power spectrum \textit{in vivo} and \textit{in vitro}. We study an avalanching biologically motivated model of mammals visual cortex and find an extended critical-like region -- a Griffiths phase -- characterized by divergent susceptibility and zero order parameter. This phase lies close to the expected experimental value of the \textit{excitatory postsynaptic potential} in the cortex suggesting that critical behavior may be found in the visual system. Avalanches are not perfectly power-law distributed, but it is possible to collapse the distributions and define a cutoff avalanche size that diverges as the network size is increased inside the critical region. The avalanches present long-range correlations and $1/f^{b}$ power spectrum, matching experiments. The phase transition is analytically determined by a mean-field approximation., Comment: 14 pages, 5 figures, PACS: 05.70.Jk,45.70.Ht,87.19.lt

The continuous nematic to smectic-A (N-SmA) phase transition has been studied by high-resolution ac-calorimetry in binary mixtures of the liquid crystal octylcyanobiphenyl(8CB) and a non-mesogenic, low-molecular weight, solvent n-hexane(hex) as a function of temperature and solvent concentration. Heating and cooling scans about the N-SmA transition temperature were repeatedly performed on pure and six 8CB+hex samples having hexane molar concentration ranging from x_{hex}= 0.02 to 0.12. All 8CB+hex samples in this range of x_{hex} remain macroscopically miscible and exhibit an N-SmA heat capacity peak that shifts non-monotonically to lower temperature and evolves in shape, with a reproducible hysteresis, as x_{hex} increases. The imaginary part of heat capacity remains zero up to x^{TCP}_{hex}\simeq 0.07$ above which the distinct peak is observed, corresponding to a jump in both the real and imaginary enthalpy. A simple power-law analysis reveals an effective exponent that increases smoothly from 0.30 to 0.50 with an amplitude ratio A^{-}/A^{+}\rightarrow 1 as x_{hex}\rightarrow x^{TCP}_{hex}. This observed crossover towards the N-SmA tricritical point driven by solvent concentration is consistent with previous results and can be understood as weakening of the liquid crystal intermolecular potential promoting increased nematic fluctuations.

A dilute suspension of carbon nanotubes (CNTs) in a nematic liquid crystal (LC) does not disturb the LC director. Due to a strong LC-CNT anchoring energy and structural symmetry matching, CNT long axis follows the director field, possessing enhanced dielectric anisotropy. This strong anchoring energy stabilizes local pseudo-nematic domains, resulting in non-zero dielectric anisotropy in the isotropic phase. These anisotropic domains respond to external electric fields and show intrinsic frequency response. The presence of these domains makes the isotropic phase field-responsive, giving rise to a large dielectric hysteresis effect., Comment: 3 Pages

A high-resolution dielectric and calorimetric study of the isotropic (I) to nematic (N) phase transition of carbon nanotube (CNT) dispersed liquid crystal (LC) functional composites as a function of CNT concentration is reported. The evolution of the I-N phase transition, the temperature dependence of local nematic ordering formed by dispersed CNTs in the LC media and the transition enthalpy were coherently monitored. Anisotropic CNTs induce local deformation to the nematic director of LC and form lyotropic pseudo-nematic phase in the LC media. Results clearly indicate the dramatic impact of dispersed CNTs on both the isotropic and nematic phases of the composite., Comment: 5 pages, 4 figures

The self-organizing properties of nematic liquid crystals (LC) can be used to template carbon nanotubes (CNTs) on a macroscopic dimension. The nematic director field, coupled to the dispersed CNT long-axis, enables controlled director reorientation using well-established methods of LC alignment techniques, such as patterned-electrode-surface, electric fields, and magnetic fields. Electric field induced director rotation of a nematic LC+CNT system is of potential interests due to its possible applications as a nano electromechanical system. The relaxation mechanism for a LC+CNT composite, on the removal of the applied field, reveals the intrinsic dynamics of this anisotropic system. Dielectric hysteresis and temperature dependence of the dielectric constant coherently shows the ferroelectric-type behavior of the LC+CNT system in the nematic phase. The strong surface anchoring of LC molecules on CNT walls results in forming local isolated pseudo-nematic domains in the isotropic phase. These domains, being anisotropic, respond to external fields, but, do not relax back to the original state on switching of the field off, showing non-volatile memory effect., Comment: 7 pages, 8 figures

Self organizing anisotropic nematic liquid crystals (LCs) induce self-assembly on quantum dots (QDs) to form one-dimensional chains along the nematic director. Spatial ordering of QDs, achieved in the nematic LC matrix, can be controlled in a preferred direction on application of electric fields, gaining better self-assembly. Once the field goes off, the LC+QD system relaxes back to the original state, revealing the intrinsic dynamics. Due to the dielectric anisotropy of the system, this dynamic response can be captured by studying dielectric relaxation. The studied dynamic response reveals insights on the field-induced self-assembly mechanism and the stability of the LC+QD system., Comment: 14 pages

A high-resolution calorimetric spectroscopy study has been performed on pure glycerol and colloidal dispersions of an aerosil in glycerol covering a wide range of temperatures from 300 K to 380 K, deep in the liquid phase of glycerol. The colloidal glycerol+aerosil samples with 0.05, 0.10, and 0.20 mass fraction of aerosil reveal glassy, activated dynamics at temperatures well above the $T_g$ of the pure glycerol. The onset of glass-like behavior appears to be due to the structural frustration imposed by the silica gel on the glycerol liquid. The aerosil gel increases the net viscosity of the mixture, placing the sample effectively at a lower temperature thus inducing a glassy state. Given the onset of this behavior at relatively low aerosil density (large mean-void length compared to the size of a glycerol molecule), this induced glassy behavior is likely due to a collective mode of glycerol molecules. The study of frustrated glass-forming systems may be a unique avenue for illuminating the physics of glasses., Comment: 6 figures and 1 table

Liquid crystals offer many unique opportunities to study various phase transitions with continuous symmetry in the presence of quenched random disorder (QRD). The QRD arises from the presence of porous solids in the form of a random gel network. Experimental and theoretical work support the view that for fixed (static) inclusions, quasi-long-range smectic order is destroyed for arbitrarily small volume fractions of the solid. However, the presence of porous solids indicates that finite-size effects could play some role in limiting long-range order. In an earlier work, the nematic - smectic-A transition region of octylcyanobiphenyl (8CB) and silica aerosils was investigated calorimetrically. A detailed x-ray study of this system is presented in the preceding Paper I, which indicates that pseudo-critical scaling behavior is observed. In the present paper, the role of finite-size scaling and two-scale universality aspects of the 8CB+aerosil system are presented and the dependence of the QRD strength on the aerosil density is discussed., Comment: 14 pages, 10 figures, 1 table. Companion paper to "Smectic ordering in liquid crystal - aerosil dispersions I. X-ray scattering" by R.L. Leheny, S. Park, R.J. Birgeneau, J.-L. Gallani, C.W. Garland, and G.S. Iannacchione