Chiral self-assembly of cellulose nanocrystals is driven by crystallite bundles.

ABSTRACT: The transfer of chirality across length-scales is an intriguing and universal natural phenomenon. However, connecting the properties of individual building blocks to the emergent features of their resulting large-scale structure remains a challenge. In this work, we investigate the origins of mesophase chirality in cellulose nanocrystal suspensions, whose self-assembly into chiral photonic films has attracted significant interest. By correlating the ensemble behaviour in suspensions and films with a quantitative morphological analysis of the individual nanoparticles, we reveal an inverse relationship between the cholesteric pitch and the abundance of laterally-bound composite particles. These 'bundles' thus act as colloidal chiral dopants, analogous to those used in molecular liquid crysta

SUBMITTER: Parton TG 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9098854 | biostudies-literature | 2022 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature