Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: http://hdl.handle.net/1959.3/81740

Title

Microengineering of soft functional materials by controlling the fiber network formation

Author(s)

Li, Jing-Liang;  Liu, Xiang-Yang

Abstract

The engineering of soft functional materials based on the construction of three-dimensional interconnecting self-organized nanofiber networks is reported. The system under investigation is an organogel formed by N-lauroyl-L-glutamic acid di-n-butylamide (GP-1) in propylene glycol. The engineering of soft functional materials is implemented by controlling primary nucleation kinetics of GP-1, which can be achieved by both reducing thermodynamic driving force and/or introducing a tiny amount of specific copolymers (i.e., poly(methyl methacrylate comethacrylic acid)). The primary nucleation rate of GP-1 is correlated to the number density of GP-1 spherulites, which determines the overall rheological properties of soft functional materials. The results show that the presence of a tiny amount of the polymer (0.01-0.06%) can effectively inhibit the nucleation of GP-1 spherulites, which leads to the formation of integrated fiber networks. It follows that with the additive approach, the viscoelasticity of the soft functional material is significantly enhanced (i.e., more than 1.5 times at 40 °C). A combination of the thermal and additive approach led to an improvement of 3.5 times in the viscosity of the gel.

Publication type

Journal article

Source

Journal of Physical Chemistry B, Vol. 113, no. 47 (Nov 2009), pp. 15467-15472

Publication year

2009

FOR Code(s)

0306 Physical Chemistry (Incl. Structural);  0904 Chemical Engineering

Keyword(s)

Fibre networks;  L-glutamic acids;  Methyl methacrylates;  Microengineering;  Nucleation;  Organogels;  Primary nucleation;  Propylene glycols;  Rheological properties;  Thermodynamic driving forces;  Viscosity

Publisher

American Chemical Society

ISSN

1520-6106

Publisher URL

http://dx.doi.org/10.1021/jp907963t

Copyright

Copyright © 2009 American Chemical Society.

Peer reviewed