Influence of chain lengths of liquid crystals on cholic acid detection

The concentration level of bile acids is a useful indicator for the diagnosis of liver diseases since individual suffering from liver diseases often has a sharp increase in bile acid concentration. Here we present a sensor platform based on the anchoring transition of nematic liquid crystal (LC), 4',4-alkylcyanobiphenyls (nCB, n=5-8), at the surfactant-laden LC/aqueous interfaces for the detection of cholic acid (CA) in aqueous solution. In the sensor platform, the competitive adsorption of CA at the surfactant-laden LC/aqueous interface triggers a homeotropic-to-planar anchoring transition of the LC at the interface. We find the detection limit, which is the minimum concentration of CA required to trigger the LC transition, increases with the increase of the chain length of nCB.