Single-Step Control of Liquid-Liquid Crystalline Phase Separation by Depletion Gradients
© 2024 The Authors. Advanced Materials published by Wiley‐VCH GmbH.
| Veröffentlicht in: | Advanced materials (Deerfield Beach, Fla.). - 1998. - 36(2024), 28 vom: 12. Juli, Seite e2312564 |
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| 1. Verfasser: | |
| Weitere Verfasser: | , , , , |
| Format: | Online-Aufsatz |
| Sprache: | English |
| Veröffentlicht: |
2024
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| Zugriff auf das übergeordnete Werk: | Advanced materials (Deerfield Beach, Fla.) |
| Schlagworte: | Journal Article amyloid imaging liquid–liquid crystalline phase separation nanoparticles tactoid templating |
| Zusammenfassung: | © 2024 The Authors. Advanced Materials published by Wiley‐VCH GmbH. Fine-tuning nucleation and growth of colloidal liquid crystalline (LC) droplets, also known as tactoids, is highly desirable in both fundamental science and technological applications. However, the tactoid structure results from the trade-off between thermodynamics and nonequilibrium kinetics effects, and controlling liquid-liquid crystalline phase separation (LLCPS) in these systems is still a work in progress. Here, a single-step strategy is introduced to obtain a rich palette of morphologies for tactoids formed via nucleation and growth within an initially isotropic phase exposed to a gradient of depletants. The simultaneous appearance is shown of rich LC structures along the depleting potential gradient, where the position of each LC structure is correlated with the magnitude of the depleting potential. Changing the size (nanoparticles) or the nature (polymers) of the depleting agent provides additional, precise control over the resulting LC structures through a size-selective mechanism, where the depletant may be found both within and outside the LC droplets. The use of depletion gradients from depletants of varying sizes and nature offers a powerful toolbox for manipulation, templating, imaging, and understanding heterogeneous colloidal LC structures |
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| Beschreibung: | Date Revised 12.07.2024 published: Print-Electronic Citation Status PubMed-not-MEDLINE |
| ISSN: | 1521-4095 |
| DOI: | 10.1002/adma.202312564 |