Coassembly of Nanorods and Nanospheres in Suspensions and in Stratified Films |
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| Authors: | Héloïse Thérien‐Aubin Ariella Lukach Natalie Pitch Prof Eugenia Kumacheva |
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| Affiliation: | 1. Department of Chemistry, University of Toronto, 80 St. George Street, Toronto, M5S 3H6 (Canada);2. Department of Chemical Engineering and Applied Chemistry, University of Toronto, 200 College Street, Toronto, Ontario M5S 3E5, Canada;3. The Institute of Biomaterials and Biomedical Engineering, University of Toronto, 4 Taddle Creek Road, Toronto, Ontario M5S 3G9, Canada |
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| Abstract: | The entropically driven coassembly of nanorods (cellulose nanocrystals, CNCs) and nanospheres (dye‐labeled spherical latex nanoparticles, NPs) was studied in aqueous suspensions and in solid films. In mixed CNC‐latex suspensions, phase separation into an isotropic latex‐NP‐rich and a chiral nematic CNC‐rich phase took place; the latter contained a significant amount of latex NPs. Drying the mixed suspension resulted in CNC‐latex films with planar disordered layers of latex NPs, which alternated with chiral nematic CNC‐rich regions. In addition, fluorescent latex NPs were embedded in the chiral nematic domains. The stratified morphology of the films, together with a random distribution of latex NPs in the anisotropic phase, led to the films having close‐to‐uniform fluorescence, birefringence, and circular dichroism properties. |
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| Keywords: | cellulose nanocrystals chiral films nanoparticles self‐assembly |
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