Fig. 4: Templating of fluorescent nanoparticles by amyloid cholesteric tactoids and the strong self-healing of hybrid tactoids.

a. Illustration depicting the distribution of PS nanobeads (30 nm in diameter) templated by cholesteric tactoid. The nanoparticles are aligned along the chiral amyloid fibrils, forming fluorescent bands observable under fluorescence confocal microscopy. b. The xy- and xz- axis of fluorescence images of single nanoparticles-doped cholesteric tactoid, with their 3D structure by the z-stacking method. The scale bar is 60 μm. c. Direct printing of a pattern (ETH logo) on a cholesteric hybrid tactoid and its dynamic self-healing process. The scale bar is 40 μm. d. The records of fluorescence intensity in the logo area and surroundings (up and down region) of the hybrid tactoid in c. e. The dynamics of the area from the printed droplet. The data were expressed as mean ± standard deviation (S.D). f. The hybrid tactoid was cut into three pieces, followed by a rapid self-healing process to a normal cholesteric tactoid. The scale bar is 30 μm. g. Dynamics of half pitch from the middle fragment in f during the self-healing process. The data were expressed as mean ± standard deviation (S.D). h. Two types of cutting (along the bands and perpendicular to the bands) with respective rapid recovery processes were recorded. The scale bar is 60 μm. i. The self-healing length of the cutting hybrid tactoid vs. recovery time in h. Models in panel a were created with 3ds Max 2021.