Issue 8, 2018

Aerogel materials with periodic structures imprinted with cellulose nanocrystals

Abstract

Novel aerogel materials with periodic structures derived from chiral nematic liquid crystalline cellulose nanocrystals (CNCs) are reported. The liquid crystalline structure of phase-separated CNCs is locked by a simple solvent exchange method or silica condensation. Both cellulose and silica/cellulose aerogel materials were obtained after critical point drying, and subsequent calcination of the silica/cellulose composite afforded a silica aerogel with periodic order. Gas adsorption and electron microscopy studies revealed that these materials have high surface areas and a unique chiral nematic structure imparted from the helicoidal CNC template. This is a new, scalable approach to aerogel materials with highly anisotropic structures. The high porosity and periodic, chiral features of these new materials may make them suitable for applications that require anisotropic properties or as hard templates for the construction of other ordered aerogels.

Graphical abstract: Aerogel materials with periodic structures imprinted with cellulose nanocrystals

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
17 Oct 2017
Accepted
29 Jan 2018
First published
07 Feb 2018

Nanoscale, 2018,10, 3805-3812

Aerogel materials with periodic structures imprinted with cellulose nanocrystals

Y. Xu, Y. Dai, T. Nguyen, W. Y. Hamad and M. J. MacLachlan, Nanoscale, 2018, 10, 3805 DOI: 10.1039/C7NR07719J

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