Japan Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, 1-1 Asahidai, Nomi, Ishikawa, 923-1292, Japan.
Sci Rep. 2017 Jul 21;7(1):5615. doi: 10.1038/s41598-017-05883-z.
Living organisms in drying environments build anisotropic structures and exhibit directionality through self-organization of biopolymers. However, the process of macro-scale assembly is still unknown. Here, we introduce a dissipative structure through a non-equilibrium process between hydration and deposition in the drying of a polysaccharide liquid crystalline solution. By controlling the geometries of the evaporation front in a limited space, multiple nuclei emerge to grow vertical membrane walls with macroscopic orientation. Notably, the membranes are formed through rational orientation of rod-like microassemblies along the dynamic three-phase contact line. Additionally, in the non-equilibrium state, a dissipative structure is ultimately immobilized as a macroscopically partitioned space by multiple vertical membranes. We foresee that such oriented membranes will be applicable to soft biomaterials with direction controllability, and the macroscopic space partitionings will aid in the understanding of the space recognition ability of natural products under drying environments.
在干燥环境中，生物体通过生物聚合物的自组织形成各向异性结构并表现出方向性。然而，宏观尺度组装的过程仍然未知。在这里，我们通过在多糖液晶溶液干燥过程中水分和沉积之间的非平衡过程引入了一种耗散结构。通过控制有限空间中蒸发前沿的几何形状，多个核出现以生长具有宏观取向的垂直膜壁。值得注意的是，膜是通过棒状微组装体沿着动态三相接触线的合理取向形成的。此外，在非平衡状态下，耗散结构最终通过多个垂直膜固定为宏观分区空间。我们预计，这种定向膜将适用于具有可控方向的软生物材料，宏观空间分区将有助于理解干燥环境下天然产物的空间识别能力。
