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Structure and transformation of tactoids in cellulose nanocrystal suspensions
Cellulose nanocrystals obtained from natural sources are of great interest for many applications. In water, cellulose nanocrystals form a liquid crystalline phase whose hierarchical structure is retained in solid films after drying. Although tactoids, one of the most primitive components of liquid c...
Autores principales: | , , |
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
Nature Publishing Group
2016
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Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4857480/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27143197 http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/ncomms11515 |
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author | Wang, Pei-Xi Hamad, Wadood Y. MacLachlan, Mark J. |
author_facet | Wang, Pei-Xi Hamad, Wadood Y. MacLachlan, Mark J. |
author_sort | Wang, Pei-Xi |
collection | PubMed |
description | Cellulose nanocrystals obtained from natural sources are of great interest for many applications. In water, cellulose nanocrystals form a liquid crystalline phase whose hierarchical structure is retained in solid films after drying. Although tactoids, one of the most primitive components of liquid crystals, are thought to have a significant role in the evolution of this phase, they have evaded structural study of their internal organization. Here we report the capture of cellulose nanocrystal tactoids in a polymer matrix. This method allows us to visualize, for the first time, the arrangement of cellulose nanocrystals within individual tactoids by electron microscopy. Furthermore, we can follow the structural evolution of the liquid crystalline phase from tactoids to iridescent-layered films. Our insights into the early nucleation events of cellulose nanocrystals give important information about the growth of cholesteric liquid crystalline phases, especially for cellulose nanocrystals, and are crucial for preparing photonics-quality films. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-4857480 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2016 |
publisher | Nature Publishing Group |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-48574802016-05-23 Structure and transformation of tactoids in cellulose nanocrystal suspensions Wang, Pei-Xi Hamad, Wadood Y. MacLachlan, Mark J. Nat Commun Article Cellulose nanocrystals obtained from natural sources are of great interest for many applications. In water, cellulose nanocrystals form a liquid crystalline phase whose hierarchical structure is retained in solid films after drying. Although tactoids, one of the most primitive components of liquid crystals, are thought to have a significant role in the evolution of this phase, they have evaded structural study of their internal organization. Here we report the capture of cellulose nanocrystal tactoids in a polymer matrix. This method allows us to visualize, for the first time, the arrangement of cellulose nanocrystals within individual tactoids by electron microscopy. Furthermore, we can follow the structural evolution of the liquid crystalline phase from tactoids to iridescent-layered films. Our insights into the early nucleation events of cellulose nanocrystals give important information about the growth of cholesteric liquid crystalline phases, especially for cellulose nanocrystals, and are crucial for preparing photonics-quality films. Nature Publishing Group 2016-05-04 /pmc/articles/PMC4857480/ /pubmed/27143197 http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/ncomms11515 Text en Copyright © 2016, Nature Publishing Group, a division of Macmillan Publishers Limited. All Rights Reserved. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in the credit line; if the material is not included under the Creative Commons license, users will need to obtain permission from the license holder to reproduce the material. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ |
spellingShingle | Article Wang, Pei-Xi Hamad, Wadood Y. MacLachlan, Mark J. Structure and transformation of tactoids in cellulose nanocrystal suspensions |
title | Structure and transformation of tactoids in cellulose nanocrystal suspensions |
title_full | Structure and transformation of tactoids in cellulose nanocrystal suspensions |
title_fullStr | Structure and transformation of tactoids in cellulose nanocrystal suspensions |
title_full_unstemmed | Structure and transformation of tactoids in cellulose nanocrystal suspensions |
title_short | Structure and transformation of tactoids in cellulose nanocrystal suspensions |
title_sort | structure and transformation of tactoids in cellulose nanocrystal suspensions |
topic | Article |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4857480/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27143197 http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/ncomms11515 |
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