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      Unwinding a spiral of cellulose nanocrystals for stimuli-responsive stretchable optics

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          Abstract

          Cellulose nanocrystals (CNCs) derived from biomass spontaneously organize into a helical arrangement, termed a chiral nematic structure. This structure mimics the organization of chitin found in the exoskeletons of arthropods, where it contributes to their remarkable mechanical strength. Here, we demonstrate a photonic sensory mechanism based on the reversible unwinding of chiral nematic CNCs embedded in an elastomer, leading the materials to display stimuli-responsive stretchable optics. Vivid interference colors appear as the film is stretched and disappear when the elastomer returns to its original shape. This reversible optical effect is caused by a mechanically-induced transition of the CNCs between a chiral nematic and pseudo-nematic arrangement.

          Abstract

          Cellulose nanocrystals (CNCs) spontaneously organize into a helical arrangement but flexible CNC elastomer composite materials with this structure were so far not realized. Here the authors demonstrate the fabrication of a CNC based elastomer composite and its application as a photonic strain sensor.

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          Helicoidal self-ordering of cellulose microfibrils in aqueous suspension.

          J.-F. Revol, H. Bradford, J. Giasson … (1992)
          In many skeletal support systems of plants and animals, cellulose, chitin, and collagen occur in the form of microfibrils ordered in a chiral nematic fashion (helicoids). However, these structures remain poorly understood due to the many constituents present in biological tissues. Here we report an in vitro system that attracts by its simplicity. Only one chemical component, cellulose, is present in the form of fibrillar fragments dispersed in water. Above a critical concentration the colloidal dispersion separates spontaneously into a chiral nematic liquid crystalline phase. On drying this phase solidifies into regularly twisted fibrillar layers that mimic the structural organization of helicoids in nature.
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            Free-standing mesoporous silica films with tunable chiral nematic structures.

            Kevin Shopsowitz, Hao Qi, Wadood Hamad … (2010)
            Chirality at the molecular level is found in diverse biological structures, such as polysaccharides, proteins and DNA, and is responsible for many of their unique properties. Introducing chirality into porous inorganic solids may produce new types of materials that could be useful for chiral separation, stereospecific catalysis, chiral recognition (sensing) and photonic materials. Template synthesis of inorganic solids using the self-assembly of lyotropic liquid crystals offers access to materials with well-defined porous structures, but only recently has chirality been introduced into hexagonal mesostructures through the use of a chiral surfactant. Efforts to impart chirality at a larger length scale using self-assembly are almost unknown. Here we describe the development of a photonic mesoporous inorganic solid that is a cast of a chiral nematic liquid crystal formed from nanocrystalline cellulose. These materials may be obtained as free-standing films with high surface area. The peak reflected wavelength of the films can be varied across the entire visible spectrum and into the near-infrared through simple changes in the synthetic conditions. To the best of our knowledge these are the first materials to combine mesoporosity with long-range chiral ordering that produces photonic properties. Our findings could lead to the development of new materials for applications in, for example, tuneable reflective filters and sensors. In addition, this type of material could be used as a hard template to generate other new materials with chiral nematic structures.
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              Cellulose nanocrystal-based materials: from liquid crystal self-assembly and glass formation to multifunctional thin films

              Jan Lagerwall, Christina Schütz, Michaela Salajkova … (2014)
              Article 0 comments Cited 207 times – based on 0 reviews     Review now
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                Author and article information

                Contributors
                Mark J. MacLachlan:
                ORCID: http://orcid.org/0000-0002-3546-7132
                mmaclach@chem.ubc.ca
                Journal
                Journal ID (nlm-ta): Nat Commun
                Journal ID (iso-abbrev): Nat Commun
                Title: Nature Communications
                Publisher: Nature Publishing Group UK (London )
                ISSN (Electronic): 2041-1723
                Publication date (Electronic): 31 January 2019
                Publication date PMC-release: 31 January 2019
                Publication date Collection: 2019
                Volume: 10
                Electronic Location Identifier: 510
                Affiliations
                [1 ]ISNI 0000 0001 2288 9830, GRID grid.17091.3e, Department of Chemistry, , University of British Columbia, ; 2036 Main Mall, Vancouver, BC V6T 1Z1 Canada
                [2 ]ISNI 0000 0001 0696 4765, GRID grid.292470.a, FPInnovations, ; 2665 East Mall, Vancouver, BC V6T 1Z4 Canada
                Author information
                http://orcid.org/0000-0002-3546-7132
                Article
                Publisher ID: 8351
                DOI: 10.1038/s41467-019-08351-6
                PMC ID: 6355765
                PubMed ID: 30705267
                SO-VID: 75042743-6fd4-4586-b7a1-8d71b1d149e2
                Copyright © © The Author(s) 2019
                License:

                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/.

                History
                Date received : 26 July 2018
                Date accepted : 8 January 2019
                Categories
                Subject: Article
                Custom metadata
                issue-copyright-statement © The Author(s) 2019

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