Issue 16, 2019

Static structure and dynamical behavior of colloidal liquid crystals consisting of hydroxyapatite-based nanorod hybrids

Abstract

Biominerals such as bones and teeth have elaborate nanostructures composed of aligned anisotropic hydroxyapatite (HAp) nanocrystals, which results in excellent mechanical properties. Construction of such ordered structures of HAp nanocrystals in synthetic materials is challenging. Recently, we reported that HAp-nanorod-based colloidal liquid crystals could be obtained. In the present study, the static structure and dynamics of liquid-crystalline (LC) colloidal dispersions of HAp nanorods are investigated by using small-angle X-ray scattering (SAXS) and X-ray photon correlation spectroscopy (XPCS). The SAXS results reveal that the interparticle distance decreases with increasing HAp concentration, ϕHAp, and the decrease of the interparticle distance for the short-axis direction is significantly smaller in the LC phase than the interparticle distance in the isotropic phase. In the dynamical studies of the LC phase using XPCS, we observe the diffusive motion of the HAp colloids, with the diffusion coefficient being dependent on the wave number. The diffusive motion slows down with increasing ϕHAp. We observe anisotropic dynamics after long-term storage (160 days after sealing), whereas only isotropic dynamics are observed in the initial XPCS measurements after short-term storage (14 days after sealing). Moreover, we have found that the dynamics slows down with increasing storage time.

Graphical abstract: Static structure and dynamical behavior of colloidal liquid crystals consisting of hydroxyapatite-based nanorod hybrids

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
15 Jan 2019
Accepted
14 Feb 2019
First published
15 Feb 2019

Soft Matter, 2019,15, 3315-3322

Author version available

Static structure and dynamical behavior of colloidal liquid crystals consisting of hydroxyapatite-based nanorod hybrids

T. Hoshino, M. Nakayama, S. Fujinami, T. Nakatani, Y. Kohmura and T. Kato, Soft Matter, 2019, 15, 3315 DOI: 10.1039/C9SM00101H

To request permission to reproduce material from this article, please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

If you are an author contributing to an RSC publication, you do not need to request permission provided correct acknowledgement is given.

If you are the author of this article, you do not need to request permission to reproduce figures and diagrams provided correct acknowledgement is given. If you want to reproduce the whole article in a third-party publication (excluding your thesis/dissertation for which permission is not required) please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

Read more about how to correctly acknowledge RSC content.

Social activity

Spotlight

Advertisements