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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Projects
- 2 Active
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BioELCell: Bioproducts Engineered from Lignocelluloses: from plants and upcycling to next generation materials
Majoinen, J., Rojas Gaona, O., Zhao, B., Dufau Mattos, B., Tardy, B., Johansson, L., Klockars, K., Kämäräinen, T., Usai, L. & Abidnejad, R.
30/07/2018 → 31/12/2023
Project: EU: ERC grants
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CERES: Competence Center for the materials Bioeconomy: A Flagship for our Sustainable Future
01/05/2018 → 30/04/2022
Project: Academy of Finland: Other research funding