Capillary Flow Characterizations of Chiral Nematic Cellulose Nanocrystal Suspensions

• DOI: 10.1021/acs.langmuir.1c01881
• Publication Date: 2022-02-08T18:47:00Z
• Authors: Mohsen Esmaeili; Kyle George; Gelareh Rezvan; Nader Taheri-Qazvini; Rui Zhang; Monirosadat Sadati
• Keywords: 0301 basic medicine; 03 medical and health sciences; 02 engineering and technology; 0210 nano-technology

Studying the flow-induced alignment of anisotropic liquid crystalline materials is major importance in 3D printing advanced architectures. However, situ characterization and quantitative measurements local orientations during process are challenging. Here, we report a microfluidic strategy integrated with polarized optical microscopy (POM) to perform cellulose nanocrystals (CNCs) under shear-flow condition printer's nozzle direct ink writing process. To quantify alignment, exploited birefringence white monochromatic light. We show that patterns significantly influenced by initial structure aqueous CNC suspensions. Depending on concentration sonication treatment, various structures can form suspensions, such as isotropic, chiral nematic (cholesteric), (gel-like) structures. In phase, particular, shear flow capillary has distinct effect particles. Our experimental results, complemented hydrodynamic simulations, reveal at high rates (Er ≈ 1000), individual particles align exhibiting weak structure. contrast, lower 241), they display double-twisted cylinder Understanding crystal pave way designing printed architectures internal chirality for mechanical smart photonic applications.