Cargando…
Bowls, vases and goblets—the microcrockery of polymer and nanocomposite morphology revealed by two-photon optical tomography
On the >1 µm scale the morphology of semicrystalline plastics like polyethylene or Nylon features spherulites, “shish-kebabs”, cylinddrites and other crystalline aggregates which strongly affect mechanical and other material properties. Current imaging techniques give only a 2D picture of these o...
Autores principales: | , , , , , , , |
---|---|
Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
Nature Publishing Group UK
2021
|
Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8379155/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34417451 http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41467-021-25297-w |
_version_ | 1783740952366546944 |
---|---|
author | Yang, Shu-Gui Wei, Zhen-Zhen Cseh, Liliana Kazemi, Pantea Zeng, Xiang-bing Xie, Hui-Jie Saba, Hina Ungar, Goran |
author_facet | Yang, Shu-Gui Wei, Zhen-Zhen Cseh, Liliana Kazemi, Pantea Zeng, Xiang-bing Xie, Hui-Jie Saba, Hina Ungar, Goran |
author_sort | Yang, Shu-Gui |
collection | PubMed |
description | On the >1 µm scale the morphology of semicrystalline plastics like polyethylene or Nylon features spherulites, “shish-kebabs”, cylinddrites and other crystalline aggregates which strongly affect mechanical and other material properties. Current imaging techniques give only a 2D picture of these objects. Here we show how they can be visualized in 3D using fluorescent labels and confocal microscopy. As a result, we see spherulites in 3D, both in neat polymers and their nanocomposites, and observe how unevenly nanoparticles and other additives are distributed in the material. Images of i-polypropylene and biodegradable poly(lactic acid) reveal previously unsuspected morphologies such as “vases” and “goblets”, nonspherical “spherulites” and, unexpectedly, “shish-kebabs” grown from quiescent melt. Also surprisingly, in nanocomposite sheets spherulite nucleation is seen to be copied from one surface to another, mediated by crystallization-induced pressure drop and local melt-flow. These first results reveal unfamiliar modes of self-assembly in familiar plastics and open fresh perspectives on polymer microstructure. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-8379155 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2021 |
publisher | Nature Publishing Group UK |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-83791552021-09-22 Bowls, vases and goblets—the microcrockery of polymer and nanocomposite morphology revealed by two-photon optical tomography Yang, Shu-Gui Wei, Zhen-Zhen Cseh, Liliana Kazemi, Pantea Zeng, Xiang-bing Xie, Hui-Jie Saba, Hina Ungar, Goran Nat Commun Article On the >1 µm scale the morphology of semicrystalline plastics like polyethylene or Nylon features spherulites, “shish-kebabs”, cylinddrites and other crystalline aggregates which strongly affect mechanical and other material properties. Current imaging techniques give only a 2D picture of these objects. Here we show how they can be visualized in 3D using fluorescent labels and confocal microscopy. As a result, we see spherulites in 3D, both in neat polymers and their nanocomposites, and observe how unevenly nanoparticles and other additives are distributed in the material. Images of i-polypropylene and biodegradable poly(lactic acid) reveal previously unsuspected morphologies such as “vases” and “goblets”, nonspherical “spherulites” and, unexpectedly, “shish-kebabs” grown from quiescent melt. Also surprisingly, in nanocomposite sheets spherulite nucleation is seen to be copied from one surface to another, mediated by crystallization-induced pressure drop and local melt-flow. These first results reveal unfamiliar modes of self-assembly in familiar plastics and open fresh perspectives on polymer microstructure. Nature Publishing Group UK 2021-08-20 /pmc/articles/PMC8379155/ /pubmed/34417451 http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41467-021-25297-w Text en © The Author(s) 2021 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons license and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) . |
spellingShingle | Article Yang, Shu-Gui Wei, Zhen-Zhen Cseh, Liliana Kazemi, Pantea Zeng, Xiang-bing Xie, Hui-Jie Saba, Hina Ungar, Goran Bowls, vases and goblets—the microcrockery of polymer and nanocomposite morphology revealed by two-photon optical tomography |
title | Bowls, vases and goblets—the microcrockery of polymer and nanocomposite morphology revealed by two-photon optical tomography |
title_full | Bowls, vases and goblets—the microcrockery of polymer and nanocomposite morphology revealed by two-photon optical tomography |
title_fullStr | Bowls, vases and goblets—the microcrockery of polymer and nanocomposite morphology revealed by two-photon optical tomography |
title_full_unstemmed | Bowls, vases and goblets—the microcrockery of polymer and nanocomposite morphology revealed by two-photon optical tomography |
title_short | Bowls, vases and goblets—the microcrockery of polymer and nanocomposite morphology revealed by two-photon optical tomography |
title_sort | bowls, vases and goblets—the microcrockery of polymer and nanocomposite morphology revealed by two-photon optical tomography |
topic | Article |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8379155/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34417451 http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41467-021-25297-w |
work_keys_str_mv | AT yangshugui bowlsvasesandgobletsthemicrocrockeryofpolymerandnanocompositemorphologyrevealedbytwophotonopticaltomography AT weizhenzhen bowlsvasesandgobletsthemicrocrockeryofpolymerandnanocompositemorphologyrevealedbytwophotonopticaltomography AT csehliliana bowlsvasesandgobletsthemicrocrockeryofpolymerandnanocompositemorphologyrevealedbytwophotonopticaltomography AT kazemipantea bowlsvasesandgobletsthemicrocrockeryofpolymerandnanocompositemorphologyrevealedbytwophotonopticaltomography AT zengxiangbing bowlsvasesandgobletsthemicrocrockeryofpolymerandnanocompositemorphologyrevealedbytwophotonopticaltomography AT xiehuijie bowlsvasesandgobletsthemicrocrockeryofpolymerandnanocompositemorphologyrevealedbytwophotonopticaltomography AT sabahina bowlsvasesandgobletsthemicrocrockeryofpolymerandnanocompositemorphologyrevealedbytwophotonopticaltomography AT ungargoran bowlsvasesandgobletsthemicrocrockeryofpolymerandnanocompositemorphologyrevealedbytwophotonopticaltomography |