Hubei Province Key Laboratory of Green Materials for Light Industry, Collaborative Innovation Center for Green Lightweight Materials and Processing, Hubei University of Technology, Wuhan 430068, P. R. China.
Hubei Province Key Laboratory of Green Materials for Light Industry, Collaborative Innovation Center for Green Lightweight Materials and Processing, Hubei University of Technology, Wuhan 430068, P. R. China.
Acta Biomater. 2020 Oct 15;116:383-390. doi: 10.1016/j.actbio.2020.09.002. Epub 2020 Sep 10.
Hydroxyapatite (HA) nanorods in the collagen matrix of bone have a macroscopically ordered structure that has many similarities to the ordered structure of anisotropic nano-units in inorganic liquid crystals (LCs). Inspired by these similarities, we conducted the first (to our best knowledge) synthesis of HA LCs in non-polar solvents (such as cyclohexane and toluene), thus expanding the range of applicable monomers and polymers. We synthesized HA nanorods by a simple, effective, and oleic-acid-assisted hydrothermal route. The hydrothermal temperature directly modulates the aspect ratio of the HA nanorods, and indirectly modulates their LC behavior. The LC phase transition has no size limitation. Thus, our approach may be used to develop high solid content, macroscopically assembled, large-scale polymer-based bio(mimetic)-materials.
羟基磷灰石（HA）纳米棒在骨胶原基质中具有宏观有序结构，与各向异性纳米单元在无机液晶（LC）中的有序结构有许多相似之处。受这些相似性的启发，我们首次（据我们所知）在非极性溶剂（如环己烷和甲苯）中合成了 HA LC，从而扩展了适用单体和聚合物的范围。我们通过一种简单、有效且使用油酸辅助的水热路线合成了 HA 纳米棒。水热温度直接调节 HA 纳米棒的纵横比，并间接调节其 LC 行为。LC 相转变没有尺寸限制。因此，我们的方法可用于开发高固含量、宏观组装、大规模聚合物基仿生材料。
