Projects per year
Abstract
We report on the formation of water-in-water liquid crystal emulsions with permeable colloidal assemblies. Rodlike cellulose nanocrystals (CNC) spontaneously self-assemble into a helical arrangement with the coexistence of nonionic, hydrophilic polyethylene glycol (PEG) and dextran, whereas the two polymer solutions are thermodynamically incompatible. Stable water-in-water emulsions are easily prepared by mixing the respective CNC/polymer solutions, showing micrometric CNC/PEG dispersed droplets and a continuous CNC/dextran phase. With time, the resulting emulsion demixes into an upper, droplet-lean isotropic phase and a bottom, droplet-rich cholesteric phase. Owing to the osmotic pressure gradient between PEG and dextran phases, target transfer of cellulose nanoparticles occurs across the water/water interface to reassemble into a liquid crystal-in-liquid crystal emulsion with global cholesteric organization. The observed structural, optical, and temporal evolution confirm that the colloidal particles in the two immiscible phases experience short-range interactions and form long-range assemblies across the interface.
Original language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | 13380-13390 |
Number of pages | 11 |
Journal | ACS Nano |
Volume | 14 |
Issue number | 10 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - 27 Oct 2020 |
MoE publication type | A1 Journal article-refereed |
Keywords
- cellulose nanocrystals
- liquid crystal
- osmotic pressure
- permeable self-assembly
- water-in-water emulsion
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Dive into the research topics of 'All-Aqueous Liquid Crystal Nanocellulose Emulsions with Permeable Interfacial Assembly'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.Projects
- 2 Finished
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BioELCell: Bioproducts Engineered from Lignocelluloses: from plants and upcycling to next generation materials
Rojas Gaona, O., Abidnejad, R., Ajdary, R., Bhattarai, M., Zhu, Y., Zhao, B., Robertson, D., Reyes Torres, G., Johansson, L., Garcia Greca, L., Klockars, K., Kämäräinen, T., Majoinen, J., Tardy, B., Dufau Mattos, B. & Ressouche, E.
30/07/2018 → 31/07/2023
Project: EU: ERC grants
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FinnCERES: Competence Center for the Materials Bioeconomy: A Flagship for our Sustainable Future
01/05/2018 → 31/12/2022
Project: Academy of Finland: Other research funding