Direct Imaging of the Orientational Dynamics of Block Copolymer Lamellar Phase Subjected to Shear Flow

Dynamic and Static Assembly of Sulfated Cellulose Nanocrystals with Alkali Metal Counter Cations

Sulfate groups on cellulose particles such as cellulose nanocrystals (CNCs) provide colloidal stability credit to electrostatic repulsion between the like-charged particles. The introduction of sodium counter cations on the sulfate groups enables drying of the CNC suspensions without irreversible aggregation. Less is known about the effect of other counter cations than sodium on extending the properties of the CNC particles. Here, we introduce the alkali metal counter cations, Li⁺, Na⁺, K⁺, Rb⁺, and Cs⁺, on sulfated CNCs without an ion exchange resin, which, so far, has been a common practice. We demonstrate that the facile ion exchange is an efficient method to exchange to any alkali metal cation of sulfate half esters, with exchange rates between 76 and 89%. The ability to form liquid crystalline order in rest was observed by the presence of birefringence patterns and followed the Hofmeister series prediction of a decreasing ability to form anisotropy with an increasing element number. However, we observed the K-CNC rheology and birefringence as a stand-out case within the series of alkali metal modifications, with dynamic moduli and loss tangent indicating a network disruptive effect compared to the other counter cations, whereas observation of the development of birefringence patterns in flow showed the absence of self- or dynamically-assembled liquid crystalline order.

Shear-induced alignment of block copolymer worms in mineral oil

Poly(stearyl methacrylate)-poly(benzyl methacrylate) [PSMA-PBzMA] diblock copolymer worms were synthesized directly in mineral oil via reversible addition-fragmentation chain transfer (RAFT) dispersion polymerization at 90 °C. Free-standing gels were obtained from this polymerization-induced self-assembly (PISA) formulation when targeting PSMA₁₃-PBzMA₆₅ dispersions at 5% w/w to 20% w/w copolymer concentration. Gel permeation chromatography (GPC) studies indicated that almost identical copolymer chains were obtained in all cases, while transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and small-angle X-ray scattering (SAXS) studies confirmed that highly anisotropic worms were formed with mean cross-sectional diameters of 11.9-13.1 nm. These worms undergo a thermoreversible worm-to-sphere transition on heating up to 150 °C. Rheological studies were conducted to characterize the shear rate- and concentration-dependent behaviour caused by this change in copolymer morphology, where the initial shear-thinning worm gels form spheres (i.e. a Newtonian fluid) on heating up to 150 °C. Complementary shear-induced polarized light imaging (SIPLI) experiments confirmed the formation of aligned linear worms under applied shear between 80 °C and 110 °C, with high-viscosity dispersions of branched worms being obtained at 20-60 °C and low-viscosity spheres being produced at 150 °C. This study informs the use of such block copolymer worms as rheology modifiers for non-polar oils, which is of potential interest for the automotive industry.

Developing Anisotropy in Self-Assembled Block Copolymers: Methods, Properties, and Applications

Block copolymers (BCPs) self-assembly has continually attracted interest as a means to provide bottom-up control over nanostructures. While various methods have been demonstrated for efficiently ordering BCP nanodomains, most of them do not generically afford control of nanostructural orientation. For many applications of BCPs, such as energy storage, microelectronics, and separation membranes, alignment of nanodomains is a key requirement for enabling their practical use or enhancing materials performance. This review focuses on summarizing research progress on the development of anisotropy in BCP systems, covering a variety of topics from established aligning techniques, resultant material properties, and the associated applications. Specifically, the significance of aligning nanostructures and the anisotropic properties of BCPs is discussed and highlighted by demonstrating a few promising applications. Finally, the challenges and outlook are presented to further implement aligned BCPs into practical nanotechnological applications, where exciting opportunities exist.

Cellulose Nanocrystal Liquid Crystal Phases: Progress and Challenges in Characterization Using Rheology Coupled to Optics, Scattering, and Spectroscopy

Cellulose nanocrystals (CNCs) self-assemble and can be flow-assembled to liquid crystalline orders in a water suspension. The orders range from nano- to macroscale with the contributions of individual crystals, their micron clusters, and macroscopic assemblies. The resulting hierarchies are optically active materials that exhibit iridescence, reflectance, and light transmission. Although these assemblies have the potential for future renewable materials, details about structures on different hierarchical levels that span from the nano- to the macroscale are still not unraveled. Rheological characterization is essential for investigating flow properties; however, bulk material properties make it difficult to capture the various length-scales during assembly of the suspensions, for example, in simple shear flow. Rheometry is combined with other characterization methods to allow direct analysis of the structure development in the individual hierarchical levels. While optical techniques, scattering, and spectroscopy are often used to complement rheological observations, coupling them in situ to allow simultaneous observation is paramount to fully understand the details of CNC assembly from liquid to solid. This Review provides an overview of achievements in the coupled analytics, as well as our current opinion about opportunities to unravel the structural distinctiveness of cellulose nanomaterials.

Role of Sheet-Edge Interactions in β-sheet Self-Assembling Peptide Hydrogels

Hydrogels' hydrated fibrillar nature makes them the material of choice for the design and engineering of 3D scaffolds for cell culture, tissue engineering, and drug-delivery applications. One particular class of hydrogels which has been the focus of significant research is self-assembling peptide hydrogels. In the present work, we were interested in exploring how fiber-fiber edge interactions affect the self-assembly and gelation properties of amphipathic peptides. For this purpose, we investigated two β-sheet-forming peptides, FEFKFEFK (F8) and KFEFKFEFKK (KF8K), the latter one having the fiber edges covered by lysine residues. Our results showed that the addition of the two lysine residues did not affect the ability of the peptides to form β-sheet-rich fibers, provided that the overall charge carried by the two peptides was kept constant. However, it did significantly reduce edge-driven hydrophobic fiber-fiber associative interactions, resulting in reduced tendency for KF8K fibers to associate/aggregate laterally and form large fiber bundles and consequently network cross-links. This effect resulted in the formation of hydrogels with lower moduli but faster dynamics. As a result, KF8K fibers could be aligned only under high shear and at high concentration while F8 hydrogel fibers were found to align readily at low shear and low concentration. In addition, F8 hydrogels were found to fragment at high concentration because of the high aggregation state stabilizing the fiber bundles, resulting in fiber breakage rather than disentanglement and alignment.

Experimental study on influence of molding parameters on self-reinforcement characteristics of polymer co-injection molding

In this paper, self-reinforced samples with different mechanical properties were obtained by adjusting the molding parameters by co-injection molding technology, and the micro-morphology of these samples was observed. Then, using structured statistical methods, the analysis of variance and response surface methodology were used to study the effects of various molding variables on the morphology and properties of the materials, and to determine the most important molding variables and their interaction relationships. Finally, the associated experimental data were fitted by the least square minimization program, and the parameters in the fitting equation were dimensionless to obtain the correlative dimensionless equation. The purpose was to establish the mechanism model of the influence of the molding parameters on the co-injection self-reinforced sample and to objectively analyze its mechanism. It was found that the melt temperature is the most important factor affecting the morphology and mechanical properties. The highly oriented skin thickness is the most important factor in determining the tensile properties of the sample. The change in crystallinity is the most important factor in relation to the elastic modulus. Through the establishment of the relevant dimensionless equations, the theoretical study on the tensile strength and elastic modulus of the co-injection self-reinforced samples of the molding parameters was preliminarily realized.

Unique aqueous self-assembly behavior of a thermoresponsive diblock copolymer

It is well-recognized that block copolymer self-assembly in solution typically produces spheres, worms or vesicles, with the relative volume fraction of each block dictating the copolymer morphology. Stimulus-responsive diblock copolymers that can undergo either sphere/worm or vesicle/worm transitions are also well-documented. Herein we report a new amphiphilic diblock copolymer that can form spheres, worms, vesicles or lamellae in aqueous solution. Such self-assembly behavior is unprecedented for a single diblock copolymer of fixed composition yet is achieved simply by raising the solution temperature from 1 °C (spheres) to 25 °C (worms) to 50 °C (vesicles) to 70 °C (lamellae). Heating increases the degree of hydration (and hence the effective volume fraction) of the core-forming block, with this parameter being solely responsible for driving the sphere-to-worm, worm-to-vesicle and vesicle-to-lamellae transitions. The first two transitions exhibit excellent reversibility but the vesicle-to-lamellae transition exhibits hysteresis on cooling. This new thermoresponsive diblock copolymer provides a useful model for studying such morphological transitions and is likely to be of significant interest for theoretical studies.

Critical Dependence of Molecular Weight on Thermoresponsive Behavior of Diblock Copolymer Worm Gels in Aqueous Solution

Reversible addition-fragmentation chain transfer (RAFT) aqueous dispersion polymerization of 2-hydroxypropyl methacrylate was used to prepare three poly(glycerol monomethacrylate) x -poly(2-hydroxypropyl methacrylate) y (denoted G x -H y  or PGMA-PHPMA) diblock copolymers, namely G37-H80, G54-H140, and G71-H200. A master phase diagram was used to select each copolymer composition to ensure that a pure worm phase was obtained in each case, as confirmed by transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and small-angle x-ray scattering (SAXS) studies. The latter technique indicated a mean worm cross-sectional diameter (or worm width) ranging from 11 to 20 nm as the mean degree of polymerization (DP) of the hydrophobic PHPMA block was increased from 80 to 200. These copolymer worms form soft hydrogels at 20 °C that undergo degelation on cooling. This thermoresponsive behavior was examined using variable temperature DLS, oscillatory rheology, and SAXS. A 10% w/w G37-H80 worm dispersion dissociated to afford an aqueous solution of molecularly dissolved copolymer chains at 2 °C; on returning to ambient temperature, these chains aggregated to form first spheres and then worms, with the original gel strength being recovered. In contrast, the G54-H140 and G71-H200 worms each only formed spheres on cooling to 2 °C, with thermoreversible (de)gelation being observed in the former case. The sphere-to-worm transition for G54-H140 was monitored by variable temperature SAXS: these experiments indicated the gradual formation of longer worms at higher temperature, with a concomitant reduction in the number of spheres, suggesting worm growth via multiple 1D sphere-sphere fusion events. DLS studies indicated that a 0.1% w/w aqueous dispersion of G71-H200 worms underwent an irreversible worm-to-sphere transition on cooling to 2 °C. Furthermore, irreversible degelation over the time scale of the experiment was also observed during rheological studies of a 10% w/w G71-H200 worm dispersion. Shear-induced polarized light imaging (SIPLI) studies revealed qualitatively different thermoreversible behavior for these three copolymer worm dispersions, although worm alignment was observed at a shear rate of 10 s-1 in each case. Subsequently conducting this technique at a lower shear rate of 1 s-1 combined with ultra small-angle x-ray scattering (USAXS) also indicated that worm branching occurred at a certain critical temperature since an upturn in viscosity, distortion in the birefringence, and a characteristic feature in the USAXS pattern were observed. Finally, SIPLI studies indicated that the characteristic relaxation times required for loss of worm alignment after cessation of shear depended markedly on the copolymer molecular weight.

Shear-induced parallel and transverse alignments of cylinders in thin films of diblock copolymers

Coarse-grained Langevin dynamics simulations were performed to investigate the alignment behavior of monolayer films of cylinder-forming diblock copolymers under steady shear, a structure of significant importance for many technical applications such as nanopatterning. The influences of shear conditions, the interactions involved in the films, and the initial morphology of the cylinder-forming phase were examined. Our results showed that above a critical shear rate, the cylinders can align either along the shearing direction or transverse (log-rolling) to the shearing direction depending on the relative strength between the interchain attraction in the cylinders (εAA) and the surface attraction of the confining walls with the film (εBW). To understand the underlying mechanism, the microscopic properties of the films under shear were systematically investigated. It was found that at low εAA/εBW, the majority blocks of the diblock polymer that are adsorbed on the confining walls prefer to move synchronously with the walls, inducing the cylinder-forming blocks to align along the flow direction. When εAA/εBW is above a threshold value, a strong attraction between the cylinder-forming blocks restrains their movement during shear, leading to the log-rolling motions of the cylinders. To predict the threshold εAA/εBW, we developed an approach based on equilibrium thermodynamics data and found good agreement with our shear simulations.

Shear-Induced Alignment of Janus Particle Lamellar Structures

Control over the alignment of colloidal structures plays a crucial role in advanced reconfigurable materials. In this work, we study the alignment of Janus particle lamellar structures under shear flow via Brownian dynamics simulations. Lamellar alignment (orientation relative to flow direction) is measured as a function of the Péclet number (Pe)-the ratio of the viscous shear to the Brownian forces-the particle volume fraction, and the strength of the anisotropic interaction potential made dimensionless with thermal energy. Under conditions where lamellar structures are formed, three orientation regimes are observed: (1) random orientation for very small Pe, (2) parallel orientation-lamellae with their normals parallel to the direction of the velocity gradient-for intermediate values of Pe, and (3) perpendicular orientation-lamellae with their normals parallel to the vorticity direction-for large Pe. To understand the alignment mechanism, we carry out a scaling analysis of competing torques between a pair of particles in the lamellar structure. Our results suggest that the change of parallel to perpendicular orientation is independent of the particle volume fraction and is caused by the hydrodynamic and Brownian torques on the particles overcoming the torques resulting from the interparticle interactions. This initial study of shear-induced alignment on lamellar structures formed by Janus colloidal particles also opens the door for future applications where a reversible actuator for structure orientation is required.

Effect of Monomer Solubility on the Evolution of Copolymer Morphology during Polymerization-Induced Self-Assembly in Aqueous Solution

Polymerization-induced self-assembly (PISA) has become a widely used technique for the rational design of diblock copolymer nano-objects in concentrated aqueous solution. Depending on the specific PISA formulation, reversible addition-fragmentation chain transfer (RAFT) aqueous dispersion polymerization typically provides straightforward access to either spheres, worms, or vesicles. In contrast, RAFT aqueous emulsion polymerization formulations often lead to just kinetically-trapped spheres. This limitation is currently not understood, and only a few empirical exceptions have been reported in the literature. In the present work, the effect of monomer solubility on copolymer morphology is explored for an aqueous PISA formulation. Using 2-hydroxybutyl methacrylate (aqueous solubility = 20 g dm-3 at 70 °C) instead of benzyl methacrylate (0.40 g dm-3 at 70 °C) for the core-forming block allows access to an unusual "monkey nut" copolymer morphology over a relatively narrow range of target degrees of polymerization when using a poly(methacrylic acid) RAFT agent at pH 5. These new anisotropic nanoparticles have been characterized by transmission electron microscopy, dynamic light scattering, aqueous electrophoresis, shear-induced polarized light imaging (SIPLI), and small-angle X-ray scattering.

Diblock-copolymer thin films under shear

The behavior of lamellae forming diblock-copolymer melts confined by two non-selective substrates under shear is studied by means of molecular dynamics simulations. Since the substrate/copolymer preferential interaction is absent, the vertically oriented lamellae (L_⊥) are formed. The response of L_⊥ phase under transverse and perpendicular modes of shear is studied for a wide range of shear rates, γ̇. In particular, shear deformation and reorientation transition, flow behavior, and difference in the macroscopic response under the two modes of shear are discussed. We show that an inclined lamellae state observed for transverse shear below a critical shear rate γ̇^* is stabilized by a cyclic motion of chains close to the substrates. The value of γ̇^*, at which lamellae dissolve and reorient along the flow field during transverse shear, coincides with the onset of shear-thinning. For γ̇<γ̇^*, the shear viscosity for transverse shear is much larger compared to that observed in perpendicular shear, while there is no difference for γ̇>γ̇^*.

Tailoring the Static and Dynamic Mechanical Properties of Tri-Block Copolymers through Molecular Dynamics Simulation

Although the research of the self-assembly of tri-block copolymers has been carried out widely, little attention has been paid to study the mechanical properties and to establish its structure-property relation, which is of utmost significance for its practical applications. Here, we adopt molecular dynamics simulation to study the static and dynamic mechanical properties of the ABA tri-block copolymer, by systematically varying the morphology, the interaction strength between A-A blocks, the temperature, the dynamic shear amplitude and frequency. In our simulation, we set the self-assembled structure formed by A-blocks to be in the glassy state, with the B-blocks in the rubbery state. With the increase of the content of A-blocks, the spherical, cylindrical and lamellar domains are formed, respectively, exhibiting a gradual increase of the stress-strain behavior. During the self-assembly process, the stress-strain curve is as well enhanced. The increase of the interaction strength between A-A blocks improves the stress-strain behavior and reduces the dynamic hysteresis loss. Since the cylindrical domains are randomly dispersed, the stress-strain behavior exhibits the isotropic mechanical property; while for the lamellar domains, the mechanical property seems to be better along the direction perpendicular to than parallel to the lamellar direction. In addition, we observe that with the increase of the dynamic shear amplitude and frequency, the self-assembled domains become broken up, resulting in the decrease of the storage modulus and the increase of the hysteresis loss, which holds the same conclusion for the increase of the temperature. Our work provides some valuable guidance to tune the static and dynamic mechanical properties of ABA tri-block copolymer in the field of various applications.

Aligning self-assembled gelators by drying under shear

We show how drying under shear can be used to prepare aligned fibres and worm-like micelles from low molecular weight gelators. Shearing followed by drying leads to the dealignment before the water can be removed; continuous shear whilst drying is required to maintain the alignment. Combining a slow pH change with continuous shear allows alignment of the gelling fibres, which can then be dried.

Evolution of unique nano-cylindrical structure in poly(styrene-b-isoprene-b-styrene) prepared under "dynamic packing injection moulding"

This work reports the evolution of ordered nano-cylindrical structures in a thermoplastic elastomer, poly(styrene-b-isoprene-b-styrene) (SIS), utilizing a newly designed processing technique, so-called "dynamic-packing injection moulding". In this injection moulding technique, controlled oscillating shears with different shear cessation times under constant pressure were applied on the moulded samples during cooling. It was found that these additional controlled oscillating shears resulted in a change of orientation in skin-core structures in these samples, compared with corresponding "reference" samples processed via traditional injection moulding (without controlled oscillating shears). For the "reference" samples, a highly oriented PS cylindrical structure combined with relatively weak lateral ordering was observed in their skin layers, whereas the lateral ordering of the PS nano-cylinders gradually disappeared when entering the core region. On the other hand, for the SIS samples obtained via "dynamic-packing injection moulding", the orientation of the PS nano-cylinders in the skin layers was similar to the case of the "reference" sample due to their extremely fast cooling rate. However, the lateral ordering of these cylinders had been extended to the core region. With an increase in the cessation time, the lateral ordering of the PS nano-cylinders was further improved and finally resulted in hexagonal lateral packing along the flow direction in the mould. Furthermore, a mixture of parallel/perpendicular orientation of the cylinders relative to the flow direction was found, particularly when the cessation time was short (such as 3 s). We speculated that this specific perpendicular orientation was a transient state for development of a final parallel orientation aligned with the flow direction with increasing cessation time, accompanied by a further enhancement of the nano-cylindrical parallel orientation. This study could provide a better understanding of the shear and relaxation effects on the structural evolution of this class of thermoplastic elastomers, enhancing supramolecular ordered cylindrical orientation in the core region, and paving a way to tune the nano-structures of block copolymers via this new processing technique to achieve desired properties.

Mechanochromic photonic gels

Polymer gels are remarkable materials with physical structures that can adapt significantly and quite rapidly with changes in the local environment, such as temperature, light intensity, electrochemistry, and mechanical force. An interesting phenomenon observed in certain polymer gel systems is mechanochromism - a change in color due to a mechanical deformation. Mechanochromic photonic gels are periodically structured gels engineered with a photonic stopband that can be tuned by mechanical forces to reflect specific colors. These materials have potential as mechanochromic sensors because both the mechanical and optical properties are highly tailorable via incorporation of diluents, solvents, nanoparticles, or polymers, or the application of stimuli such as temperature, pH, or electric or strain fields. Recent advances in photonic gels that display strain-dependent optical properties are discussed. In particular, this discussion focuses primarily on polymer-based photonic gels that are directly or indirectly fabricated via self-assembly, as these materials are promising soft material platforms for scalable mechanochromic sensors.