Pujala Ravi Kumar, Schneijdenberg C T W M, van Blaaderen Alfons, Bohidar H B
Soft Condensed Matter group, Debye Institute for Nanomaterials Science, Utrecht University, Princetonplein 5, 3584 CC, Utrecht, The Netherlands.
School of Physics, University of Hyderabad, Hyderabad, 500046, India.
Sci Rep. 2018 Apr 3;8(1):5589. doi: 10.1038/s41598-018-23814-4.
The search for new functional soft materials with precise and reconfigurable structures at the nano and meso-scale is a major challenge as well as objective of the current science. Patchy colloids of different shapes and functionalities are considered important new building blocks of a bottom-up approach towards rational design of new soft materials largely governed by anisotropic interactions. Herein, we investigate the self-assembly, growth of hierarchical microstructures and aging dynamics of 2D nano-platelets of two different aspect ratios (Laponite ~25 and Montmorillonite ~250) which form gels with different porosity that is achieved by tuning their mixing ratios. Qualitative in situ real-space studies are carried out, including fluorescent confocal microscopy imaging of the bicontinuous gelation process or final states, which provides dynamic visualization of the self-organization. The bicontinuous gels exhibit a foam-like morphology having pores of a few micrometers in size that can be tuned by varying the mixing ratio of nanoplatelets. It is shown that this new class of clay gels has unique and tunable physical properties that will find potential applications in the development of low cost lithium ion batteries, nanocomposites and nuclear waste management.
在纳米和介观尺度上寻找具有精确且可重构结构的新型功能性软材料，是当前科学的一项重大挑战和目标。不同形状和功能的补丁状胶体被认为是自下而上合理设计新型软材料的重要新构建单元，这种设计很大程度上受各向异性相互作用支配。在此，我们研究了两种不同纵横比（锂皂石约为25，蒙脱石约为250）的二维纳米片的自组装、分级微结构的生长以及老化动力学，通过调整它们的混合比例可形成具有不同孔隙率的凝胶。我们进行了定性的原位实空间研究，包括对双连续凝胶化过程或最终状态的荧光共聚焦显微镜成像，这提供了自组织的动态可视化。双连续凝胶呈现出泡沫状形态，其孔隙尺寸为几微米，可通过改变纳米片的混合比例进行调节。结果表明，这类新型粘土凝胶具有独特且可调的物理性质，在低成本锂离子电池、纳米复合材料和核废料管理的开发中具有潜在应用。
