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arXiv · 1812.07663

Characterizing the Orientational and Network Dynamics of Polydisperse Nanofibres at the Nanoscale

Christophe Brouzet·Nitesh Mittal·Fredrik Lundell·Daniel Söderberg
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Abstract

Polydisperse fibre networks are the basis of many natural and man-made architectures, ranging from high-performance bio-based materials to components of living cells and tissues. The formation and persistence of such networks are given by fibre properties such as length and stiffness as well as the number density and fibre-fibre interactions. Studies of fibre network behavior, such as connectivity or rigidity thresholds, typically assume fixed fibre length and isotropic fibre orientation distributions, specifically for nanoscale fibres where the methods providing time-resolved measurements are limited. Using birefringence measurements in a microfluidic flow-focusing channel combined with a flow-stop procedure, we here propose a methodology allowing investigations of length dependent rotational dynamics of nanoscale polydisperse fibre suspensions, including effects of non-isotropic orientation distributions. Transition from rotational mobility to rigidity at entanglement thresholds is specifically addressed for a number of nanocellulose suspensions, which are used as model nanofibre systems. The results show that the proposed method allows characterization of the subtle interplay between Brownian diffusion and nanoparticle alignment on network dynamics.

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Christophe Brouzet, Nitesh Mittal, Fredrik Lundell, Daniel Söderberg. 2018-12-18. Characterizing the Orientational and Network Dynamics of Polydisperse Nanofibres at the Nanoscale. https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.macromol.8b02714

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