Marangoni Flow-Driven Angular Self-Assembly of Cellulose Nanocrystals: The Tale of Tilted Tactoids and Folded Domains.

ABSTRACT: Cellulose nanocrystals (CNCs) can spontaneously self-assemble into cholesteric photonic films with vibrant colors with multidomain structures and variations in cholesteric pitch. Herein, an angular deposition technique is employed to harness capillary and Marangoni flows to fabricate CNC photonic films with spatially tunable structural colors spanning from red to blue. A crucial relation between the substrate angle, the development of color zones, film coverage and film thickness is discovered. The color range of the photonic films can be shifted by tuning the size distribution of CNC particles is also demonstrated. As the CNC particles and tactoids are deposited on the substrate, a central deformation line emerged with tilted and folded domains, which is a consequence of Marangoni flow-in

SUBMITTER: Zhu Y 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12285622 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature