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Mohamed Yunus RA, Koch M, Dieudonné-George P, Truzzolillo D, Colby RH, Parisi D. Water-Driven Sol-Gel Transition in Native Cellulose/1-Ethyl-3-methylimidazolium Acetate Solutions. ACS Macro Lett 2024:219-226. [PMID: 38285692 PMCID: PMC10883029 DOI: 10.1021/acsmacrolett.3c00710] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/31/2024]
Abstract
The addition of water to native cellulose/1-ethyl-3-methylimidazolium acetate solutions catalyzes the formation of gels, where polymer chain-chain intermolecular associations act as cross-links. However, the relationship between water content (Wc), polymer concentration (Cp), and gel strength is still missing. This study provides the fundamentals to design water-induced gels. First, the sol-gel transition occurs exclusively in entangled solutions, while in unentangled ones, intramolecular associations hamper interchain cross-linking, preventing the gel formation. In entangled systems, the addition of water has a dual impact: at low water concentrations, the gel modulus is water-independent and controlled by entanglements. As water increases, more cross-links per chain than entanglements emerge, causing the modulus of the gel to scale as Gp ∼ Cp2Wc3.0±0.2. Immersing the solutions in water yields hydrogels with noncrystalline, aggregate-rich structures. Such water-ionic liquid exchange is examined via Raman, FTIR, and WAXS. Our findings provide avenues for designing biogels with desired rheological properties.
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Affiliation(s)
- Roshan Akdar Mohamed Yunus
- Engineering and Technology Institute Groningen (ENTEG), University of Groningen, Nijenborgh 4, 9747 AG Groningen, The Netherlands
| | - Marcus Koch
- INM - Leibniz Institute for New Materials, Campus D2 2, 66123 Saarbrücken, Germany
| | - Philippe Dieudonné-George
- Laboratoire Charles Coulomb (L2C), UMR 5221 CNRS Université de Montpellier, Montpellier 34095, France
| | - Domenico Truzzolillo
- Laboratoire Charles Coulomb (L2C), UMR 5221 CNRS Université de Montpellier, Montpellier 34095, France
| | - Ralph H Colby
- Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Penn State University, University Park, Pennsylvania 16802, United States
| | - Daniele Parisi
- Engineering and Technology Institute Groningen (ENTEG), University of Groningen, Nijenborgh 4, 9747 AG Groningen, The Netherlands
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2
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Morozova SM, López-Flores L, Gevorkian A, Zhang H, Adibnia V, Shi W, Nykypanchuk D, Statsenko TG, Walker GC, Gang O, de la Cruz MO, Kumacheva E. Colloidal Clusters and Networks Formed by Oppositely Charged Nanoparticles with Varying Stiffnesses. ACS NANO 2023; 17:15012-15024. [PMID: 37459253 DOI: 10.1021/acsnano.3c04064] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 08/09/2023]
Abstract
Colloidal clusters and gels are ubiquitous in science and technology. Particle softness has a strong effect on interparticle interactions; however, our understanding of the role of this factor in the formation of colloidal clusters and gels is only beginning to evolve. Here, we report the results of experimental and simulation studies of the impact of particle softness on the assembly of clusters and networks from mixtures of oppositely charged polymer nanoparticles (NPs). Experiments were performed below or above the polymer glass transition temperature, at which the interaction potential and adhesive forces between the NPs were significantly varied. Hard NPs assembled in fractal clusters that subsequently organized in a kinetically arrested colloidal gel, while soft NPs formed dense precipitating aggregates, due to the NP deformation and the decreased interparticle distance. Importantly, interactions of hard and soft NPs led to the formation of discrete precipitating NP aggregates at a relatively low volume fraction of soft NPs. A phenomenological model was developed for interactions of oppositely charged NPs with varying softnesses. The experimental results were in agreement with molecular dynamics simulations based on the model. This work provides insight on interparticle interactions before, during, and after the formation of hard-hard, hard-soft, and soft-soft contacts and has impact for numerous applications of reversible colloidal gels, including their use as inks for additive manufacturing.
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Affiliation(s)
- Sofia M Morozova
- Department of Chemistry, University of Toronto, 80 Saint George street, Toronto M5S 3H6, Ontario, Canada
| | - Leticia López-Flores
- Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois 60208, United States
| | - Albert Gevorkian
- Department of Chemistry, University of Toronto, 80 Saint George street, Toronto M5S 3H6, Ontario, Canada
| | - Honghu Zhang
- Center for Functional Nanomaterials, Brookhaven National Laboratory, Upton, New York 11973, United States
- National Synchrotron Light Source II, Brookhaven National Laboratory, Upton, New York 11973, United States
| | - Vahid Adibnia
- Department of Chemistry, University of Toronto, 80 Saint George street, Toronto M5S 3H6, Ontario, Canada
| | - Weiqing Shi
- Department of Chemistry, University of Toronto, 80 Saint George street, Toronto M5S 3H6, Ontario, Canada
| | - Dmytro Nykypanchuk
- Center for Functional Nanomaterials, Brookhaven National Laboratory, Upton, New York 11973, United States
| | - Tatiana G Statsenko
- Department of Chemistry, University of Toronto, 80 Saint George street, Toronto M5S 3H6, Ontario, Canada
| | - Gilbert C Walker
- Department of Chemistry, University of Toronto, 80 Saint George street, Toronto M5S 3H6, Ontario, Canada
| | - Oleg Gang
- Center for Functional Nanomaterials, Brookhaven National Laboratory, Upton, New York 11973, United States
- Departments of Chemical Engineering and Applied Physics and Applied Mathematics, Columbia University, New York, New York 10027, United States
| | - Monica Olvera de la Cruz
- Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois 60208, United States
- Department of Chemistry, Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois 60208, United States
| | - Eugenia Kumacheva
- Department of Chemistry, University of Toronto, 80 Saint George street, Toronto M5S 3H6, Ontario, Canada
- Institute of Biomaterials and Biomedical Engineering, University of Toronto, Toronto M5S 3H6, Ontario, Canada
- Department of Chemical Engineering and Applied Chemistry, University of Toronto, Toronto M5S 3H6, Ontario, Canada
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3
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Parisi D, Truzzolillo D, Slim AH, Dieudonné-George P, Narayanan S, Conrad JC, Deepak VD, Gauthier M, Vlassopoulos D. Gelation and Re-entrance in Mixtures of Soft Colloids and Linear Polymers of Equal Size. Macromolecules 2023; 56:1818-1827. [PMID: 36938509 PMCID: PMC10019458 DOI: 10.1021/acs.macromol.2c02491] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/10/2022] [Revised: 02/02/2023] [Indexed: 02/24/2023]
Abstract
Liquid mixtures composed of colloidal particles and much smaller non-adsorbing linear homopolymers can undergo a gelation transition due to polymer-mediated depletion forces. We now show that the addition of linear polymers to suspensions of soft colloids having the same hydrodynamic size yields a liquid-to-gel-to-re-entrant liquid transition. In particular, the dynamic state diagram of 1,4-polybutadiene star-linear polymer mixtures was determined with the help of linear viscoelastic and small-angle X-ray scattering experiments. While keeping the star polymers below their nominal overlap concentration, a gel was formed upon increasing the linear polymer content. Further addition of linear chains yielded a re-entrant liquid. This unexpected behavior was rationalized by the interplay of three possible phenomena: (i) depletion interactions, driven by the size disparity between the stars and the polymer length scale which is the mesh size of its entanglement network; (ii) colloidal deswelling due to the increased osmotic pressure exerted onto the stars; and (iii) a concomitant progressive suppression of the depletion efficiency on increasing the polymer concentration due to reduced mesh size, hence a smaller range of attraction. Our results unveil an exciting new way to tailor the flow of soft colloids and highlight a largely unexplored path to engineer soft colloidal mixtures.
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Affiliation(s)
- Daniele Parisi
- FORTH,
Institute of Electronic Structure and Laser, Heraklion 70013, Crete, Greece
- Department
of Chemical Engineering, Product Technology, University of Groningen, Nijenborgh 4, Groningen 9747 AG, The Netherlands
| | - Domenico Truzzolillo
- Laboratoire
Charles Coulomb (L2C), UMR 5221 CNRS Université de Montpellier, Montpellier 34095, France
| | - Ali H. Slim
- Department
of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, University of Houston, Houston, Texas 77204-4004, United States
| | | | - Suresh Narayanan
- Advanced
Photon Source, Argonne National Laboratory, Argonne, Illinois 60439, United States
| | - Jacinta C. Conrad
- Department
of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, University of Houston, Houston, Texas 77204-4004, United States
| | - Vishnu D. Deepak
- Department
of Chemistry, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, Ontario N2L 3G1, Canada
| | - Mario Gauthier
- Department
of Chemistry, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, Ontario N2L 3G1, Canada
| | - Dimitris Vlassopoulos
- FORTH,
Institute of Electronic Structure and Laser, Heraklion 70013, Crete, Greece
- Department
of Materials Science and Technology, University
of Crete, Heraklion 70013, Crete, Greece
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4
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Sun YW, Li ZW, Chen ZQ, Zhu YL, Sun ZY. Colloidal cubic diamond photonic crystals through cooperative self-assembly. SOFT MATTER 2022; 18:2654-2662. [PMID: 35311843 DOI: 10.1039/d1sm01770e] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/14/2023]
Abstract
Colloidal cubic diamond crystals with low-coordinated and staggered structures could display a wide photonic bandgap at low refractive index contrasts, which makes them extremely valuable for photonic applications. However, self-assembly of cubic diamond crystals using simple colloidal building blocks is still considerably challenging, due to their low packing fraction and mechanical instability. Here we propose a new strategy for constructing colloidal cubic diamond crystals through cooperative self-assembly of surface-anisotropic triblock Janus colloids and isotropic colloidal spheres into superlattices. In self-assembly, cooperativity is achieved by tuning the interaction and particle size ratio of colloidal building blocks. The pyrochlore lattice formed by self-assembly of triblock Janus colloids acts as a soft template to direct the packing of colloidal spheres into cubic diamond lattices. Numerical simulations show that this cooperative self-assembly strategy works well in a large range of particle size ratio of these two species. Moreover, photonic band structure calculations reveal that the resulting cubic diamond lattices exhibit wide and complete photonic bandgaps and the width and frequency of the bandgaps can also be easily adjusted by tuning the particle size ratio. Our work will open up a promising avenue toward photonic bandgap materials by cooperative self-assembly employing surface-anisotropic Janus or patchy colloids as a soft template.
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Affiliation(s)
- Yu-Wei Sun
- State Key Laboratory of Polymer Physics and Chemistry, Changchun Institute of Applied Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Changchun 130022, China.
- University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, 230026, China
| | - Zhan-Wei Li
- State Key Laboratory of Polymer Physics and Chemistry, Changchun Institute of Applied Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Changchun 130022, China.
- University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, 230026, China
| | - Zi-Qin Chen
- State Key Laboratory of Polymer Physics and Chemistry, Changchun Institute of Applied Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Changchun 130022, China.
- University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, 230026, China
| | - You-Liang Zhu
- State Key Laboratory of Supramolecular Structure and Materials, College of Chemistry, Jilin University, Changchun 130012, China
| | - Zhao-Yan Sun
- State Key Laboratory of Polymer Physics and Chemistry, Changchun Institute of Applied Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Changchun 130022, China.
- University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, 230026, China
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5
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Miyazaki K, Schweizer KS, Thirumalai D, Tuinier R, Zaccarelli E. The Asakura–Oosawa theory: Entropic forces in physics, biology, and soft matter. J Chem Phys 2022; 156:080401. [DOI: 10.1063/5.0085965] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/14/2022] Open
Affiliation(s)
- K. Miyazaki
- Department of Physics, Nagoya University, Nagoya 464-8602, Japan
| | - K. S. Schweizer
- Department of Chemistry, University of Illinois, Urbana, Illinois 61801, USA
- Materials Research Laboratory, University of Illinois, Urbana, Illinois 61801, USA
- Department of Materials Science, University of Illinois, Urbana, Illinois 61801, USA
| | - D. Thirumalai
- Department of Chemistry, University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas 78712, USA
| | - R. Tuinier
- Laboratory of Physical Chemistry, Department of Chemical Engineering and Chemistry, Eindhoven University of Technology, P.O. Box 513, 5600 MB Eindhoven, The Netherlands
- Institute for Complex Molecular Systems, Eindhoven University of Technology, P.O. Box 513, 5600 MB Eindhoven, The Netherlands
| | - E. Zaccarelli
- CNR-ISC (National Research Council–Institute for Complex Systems) and Department of Physics, Sapienza University of Rome, Rome, Italy
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