1. Coassembly of Nanorods and Nanospheres in Suspensions and in Stratified Films.
- Author
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Thérien-Aubin, Héloïse, Lukach, Ariella, Pitch, Natalie, and Kumacheva, Eugenia
- Subjects
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NANORODS , *NANOPARTICLES , *THIN films , *BIREFRINGENCE , *CIRCULAR dichroism , *CELLULOSE nanocrystals - 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. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2015
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