HEИндивидуална стипендия2024–2026

CINCOS · Chirality inversion in colloidal self-assembly

„Хоризонт Европа“ — Действия „Мария Склодовска-Кюри“

Период: 2024-05-01 → 2026-04-30
Финансиране от ЕС: 173 847 €
Участници: 2
Схема: HORIZON-TMA-MSCA-PF-EF

Линиите свързват координатора с партньорите.

Накратко на български

Нанокристалите от целулоза се изследват, за да се промени посоката на завиване на спиралите, които те образуват. Това помага за създаването на по-ефективни и устойчиви екологични алтернативи на традиционните пигменти и бляскави частици.

Този кратък обзор е генериран от изкуствен интелект

Кратко обяснение, генерирано от езиков модел по текста на CORDIS. Оригиналът е по-долу.

Резултати накратко

Chirality inversion in colloidal self-assembly

Structurally-coloured films made from cellulose, the world’s most abundant biopolymer, show great promise as a sustainable alternative to conventional effect pigments and glitter. This colouration arises from the colloidal self-assembly of rod-like cellulose nanocrystals (CNCs), which spontaneously form a cholesteric liquid crystal phase with a helical periodic structure. In this system, control over colloidal chirality is crucial, because the handedness of the self-assembled structure determines the optical response and thus the colour and polarisation properties of the resulting films. Although cellulose can form both left- and right-handed helicoidal structures in nature, naturally-derived colloidal cellulose only forms a left-handed cholesteric phase, limiting the optical performance of CNC-based colourants. The CINCOS fellowship therefore explored how the morphology of CNCs could be tuned to control their self-assembly and enable structurally coloured films with inverted chirality, opening a route to more efficient and sustainable photonic materials for colours, pigments, and glitter replacements.

Текст от CORDIS, на английски · Данни: CORDIS, © Европейски съюз

Цел на проекта

The chiral self-assembly of nanoscale building blocks offers a scalable route to functional materials, but understanding and controlling this process is a persistent challenge. A notable example is cellulose nanocrystals (CNCs), elongated nanoparticles extracted from natural cellulose that assemble into a cholesteric liquid crystal phase in aqueous suspension. This helicoidal self-organisation can be preserved into the solid state to create structurally coloured films, offering a sustainable way to produce next-generation pigments and colourants. However, the CNC cholesteric phase is always found to be left-handed due to the presence of ""bundles"", a sub-population of CNCs that act as colloidal chiral dopants and induce left-handed ordering. Inspired by the naturally-occuring CNC bundles, this project aims to produce cellulose polycrystals (CPCs), a new class of clustered nanoparticles produced by the aggregation of CNCs in the presence of a chiral ""glue"" provided by hemicelluloses. These CPCs will then be used as synthetic chiral dopants to induce a right-handed cholesteric phase in CNCs suspensions for the first time. This inversion of the handedness of CNC self-assembly will result in films that reflect RCP light in the visible range, enabling the creation of structurally-coloured materials with near-ideal optical performance. These findings will deepen our understanding of chiral colloidal self-assembly and open up new avenues of enquiry for research on bio-sourced nanomaterials.""

Оригинален текст от CORDIS (на английски).

Участници

MAX-PLANCK-GESELLSCHAFT ZUR FORDERUNG DER WISSENSCHAFTEN EV · MUNCHENКоординаторГермания
REGENTS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN · ANN ARBORСъединени щати