Fractionation of cellulose nanocrystals: enhancing liquid crystal ordering without promoting gelation

in NPG asia materials (2018)

Colloids of electrically charged nanorods can spontaneously develop a fluid yet ordered liquid crystal phase, but this ordering competes with a tendency to form a gel of percolating rods. The threshold ... [more ▼]

Colloids of electrically charged nanorods can spontaneously develop a fluid yet ordered liquid crystal phase, but this ordering competes with a tendency to form a gel of percolating rods. The threshold for ordering is reduced by increasing the rod aspect ratio, but the percolation threshold is also reduced with this change; hence, prediction of the outcome is nontrivial. Here, we show that by establishing the phase behavior of suspensions of cellulose nanocrystals(CNCs) fractionated according to length, an increased aspect ratio can strongly favor liquid crystallinity without necessarily influencing gelation. Gelation is instead triggered by increasing the counterion concentration until theCNCs lose colloidal stability, triggering linear aggregation, which promotes percolation regardless of the original rod aspect ratio. Our results shine new light on the competition between liquid crystal formation and gelation in nanoparticle suspensions and provide a path for enhanced control of CNC self-organization for applications in photonic crystal paper or advanced composites. [less ▲]

Determination of the rheological properties of Matrigel for optimum seeding conditions in microfluidic cell cultures

in AIP ADVANCES (2018), 8(12),

Hydrogels are increasingly used as a surrogate extracellular matrix in three-dimensional cell culture systems, including microfluidic cell culture. Matrigel is a hydrogel of natural origin widely used in ... [more ▼]

Hydrogels are increasingly used as a surrogate extracellular matrix in three-dimensional cell culture systems, including microfluidic cell culture. Matrigel is a hydrogel of natural origin widely used in cell culture, particularly in the culture of stem cell-derived cell lines. The use of Matrigel as a surrogate extracellular matrix in microfluidic systems is challenging due to its biochemical, biophysical, and biomechanical properties. Therefore, understanding and characterising these properties is a prerequisite for optimal use of Matrigel in microfluidic systems. We used rheological measurements and particle image velocimetry to characterise the fluid flow dynamics of liquefied Matrigel during loading into a three-dimensional microfluidic cell culture device. Using fluorescence microscopy and fluorescent beads for particle image velocimetry measurements (velocity profiles) in combination with classical rheological measurements of Matrigel (viscosity versus shear rate), we characterised the shear rates experienced by cells in a microfluidic device for three-dimensional cell culture. This study provides a better understanding of the mechanical stress experienced by cells, during seeding of a mixture of hydrogel and cells, into three-dimensional microfluidic cell culture devices. (C) 2018 Author(s). [less ▲]

Timescales of microstructure relaxation in sheared colloidal hard sphere suspensions

Presentation (2015, October)

Brownian stress relaxation in sheared nanocomposites: Non-monotonic concentration dependency of relaxation frequencies

Presentation (2015, April)

The influence of Brownian motion on sheared nanocomposites: New experimental results and a revision of Peclet-time as a characteristic time scale

Poster (2015, March)

Mobility restrictions and glass transition behaviour of an epoxy resin under confinement

in Soft Matter (2015), 11(13), 2683-2690

Confinement can have a big influence on the dynamics of glass formers in the vicinity of the glass transition. Already 40 to 50 K above the glass transition temperature, thermal equilibration of glass ... [more ▼]

Confinement can have a big influence on the dynamics of glass formers in the vicinity of the glass transition. Already 40 to 50 K above the glass transition temperature, thermal equilibration of glass formers can be strongly influenced by the confining substrate. We investigate the linear thermal expansion and the specific heat capacity c(p) of an epoxy resin (diglycidyl ether of bisphenol A, DGEBA) in a temperature interval of 120 K around the glass transition temperature. The epoxy resin is filled into controlled pore glasses with pore diameters between 4 and 111 nm. Since DGEBA can form H-bonds with silica surfaces, we also investigate the influence of surface silanization of the porous substrates. In untreated substrates a core/shell structure of the epoxy resin can be identified. The glass transition behaviours of the bulk phase and that of the shell phase are different. In silanized substrates, the shell phase disappears. At a temperature well above the glass transition, a second transition is found for the bulk phase - both in the linear expansion data as well as in the specific heat capacity. The c(p) data do not allow excluding the glass transition of a third phase as being the cause for this transition, whereas the linear expansion data do so. The additional transition temperature is interpreted as a separation between two regimes: above this temperature, macroscopic flow of the bulk phase inside the porous structure is possible to balance the mismatch of thermal expansion coefficients between DGEBA and the substrate. Below the transition temperature, this degree of freedom is hindered by geometrical constraints of the porous substrates. Moreover, this second transition could also be found in the linear expansion data of the shell phase. [less ▲]

Comparative study of the effect of untreated, silanized and grafted alumina nanoparticles on thermal and dynamic mechanical properties of the styrene-butadiene rubber

in AIP Conference Proceedings (2014, May 15), 1599

Elastomers filled with hard nanoparticles are of great technical importance for the rubber industry. In general, fillers improve mechanical properties of polymer materials, e.g. elastic moduli, tensile ... [more ▼]

Elastomers filled with hard nanoparticles are of great technical importance for the rubber industry. In general, fillers improve mechanical properties of polymer materials, e.g. elastic moduli, tensile strength etc. The smaller the size of the particles the larger is the interface where interactions between polymer molecules and fillers can generate new properties. Using Temperature Modulated Differential Scanning Calorimetry (TMDSC) and Dynamic Mechanical Analysis (DMA), we investigated the properties of the pure styrene-butadiene rubber (SBR), SBR/ alumina nanoparticles, SBR/silanized alumina and SBR/alumina grafted to polymer chains. Beside a general reinforcement effect seen in the complex elastic moduli, the studies revealed that: i) small concentrations of nanoparticles (of 1.5-2 wt%) lead to a minimum in the glass transition temperature as a function of nanoparticle content; ii) for the grafted nanocomposites increasing the nanoparticle concentration beyond 4 wt% yields an increase of Tg by 4 K; iii) DMA mastercurves showed that in case of untreated and silanized alumina mechanical behaviour of the composite systems is rather near to the one of the SBR matrix, but the grafting of elastomer molecules to the silanized fillers induces a quasi-solid like response of the system in the low frequency regime. [less ▲]

Comparison of the metastable and the stable phase of eicosane via thermal analysis

Poster (2014, March)

Relaxation of the complex heat capacity of Eicosane in the Rotator phase

Scientific Conference (2014, March)

Phase Instability and Molecular Kinetics Provoked by Repeated Crossing of the Demixing Transition of PNIPAM Solutions

in Langmuir (2014), 30

The demixing process of aqueous poly(N-isopropylacrylamide) (PNIPAM) solutions can occur either via a nucleation and growth process or via spinodal decomposition. The ensuing self-assembly, leading to ... [more ▼]

The demixing process of aqueous poly(N-isopropylacrylamide) (PNIPAM) solutions can occur either via a nucleation and growth process or via spinodal decomposition. The ensuing self-assembly, leading to heterogeneous morphologies within the PNIPAM solution, is codetermined by kinetic processes caused by molecular transport. By subjecting PNIPAM solutions to cyclic changes in temperature leading to repeated crossing of the demixing transition, we are able to assess the importance of kinetics as well as of overheating and supercooling of the phase transition within the metastable range delimited by the binodal and spinodal lines. First indications about the location of these stability limits for the low- and high-temperature phases, separated by about 1.6 K, could be gained by detailed kinetic studies of the refractive index. These investigations are made possible due to the novel technique of temperature-modulated optical refractometry. [less ▲]