7 / 2021-05-11 16:32:20

NEW PERSPECTIVE ON NANOCELLULOSE DERIVED SOFT MATTER: LIQUID CRYSTAL BUBBLES, EMULSIONS AND COLLOIDAL GLASS

Cellulose Nanocrystal,Liquid Crystal,Bubbles,Emulsions,Colloidal Glass

Nanocellulose colloids are twisted and negatively charged nanorods, most commonly derived from plant-sourced materials. When nanocellulose particles are dispersed into water or specific organic solvents, it will form a stable colloidal suspension and self-assemble into a cholesteric phase at high particle concentration. Unlike other molecular-based lyotropic and thermotropic liquid crystals, the cholesteric phase of nanocellulose colloids is extremely stable even with the addition of polymers, nanoparticles, surfactants and inorganic precursors, acting as a robust liquid crystal matrix for designing functional materials. Nanocellulose liquid crystals have been widely studied from the perspective of their chemistry, templating, photonics and chirality, whereas their potential capacities for fabricating macroscopic colloidal materials still remain unexplored. Herein, we developed a series of nanocellulose-based materials with hierarchical liquid crystal organization. In particular, we describe the use of colloidal nanocellulose to generate three different types of soft matter: liquid crystal bubbles1, liquid crystal emulsions^{2, 3} and liquid crystal colloidal glass⁴. We find that the nanocellulose colloids can be served as a versatile soft matter platform that sustains both liquid crystal ordering and particular optical, assembly, rheology or interfacial property.



Reference:

[1]                     Chu, G.; Vilensky, R.; Vasilyev, G.; Deng, S.; Qu, D.; Xu, Y. and Zussman, E.*, Angew. Chem. 2017, 129, 8877-8881.

[2]                     Chu, G.*; Vasilyev, G.; Vilensky, R.; Boaz, M.; Zhang, R.; Martin, P.; Dahan, N.; Deng, S. and Zussman, E.*, Langmuir 2018, 34, 13263-13273.

[3]                     Bai, L.; Huan, S.; Zhao, B.; Zhu, Y.; Esquena, J.; Chen, F.; Gao, G.; Zussman, E.; Chu, G.* and Rojas, J. O.^*, ACS Nano 2020, 14, 13380-13390.

[4]                     Chu, G.*; Vasilyev, G.; Qu, D.; Deng, S.; Bai, L.; Rojas, J. O.* and Zussman, E.*, Langmuir 2020, 36, 979-985.