Nature provides prime examples of lightweight, strong, stiff and yet tough materials. Their unique properties are realized via the hierarchical self-organizing growth of hard (inorganic, protein crystals, crystalline polysaccharides) and soft (organic, biopolymeric) building blocks into well-ordered structures with tailored energy dissipation mechanisms. Nacre, wood or silk are paradigms in materials design and considered near perfect marriages of hard and soft components.<br/>Herein, we will demonstrate large-scale self-assembly approaches to mimic the structures found in natural high performance materials, and focus on how to tune the mechanical and functional properties, and make the overall structures light adaptive.<br/>We use polymer-coated 2D inorganic nanoclay platelets and 1D nanocellulose reinforcements with intrinsic hard/soft character to form nacre-mimetic and silk-mimetic nanocomposite films with highly defined and tuneable mesostructure upon water-removal due to excluded volume effects. Due to the high level of reinforcing materials, the final material contain nanoconfined polymer layers that govern the overall properties. We will show how aspect ratio, thickness of the organic layers, supramolecular bonds in the soft phase and humidity influence local dynamics and macroscopic material and fracture properties. We furthermore demonstrate how the mechanical properties can be modulated in a spatiotemporal manner using light irradiation, and how this relates to non-equilibrium materials.<br/>Beyond mechanical properties, we discuss applications driven by functionalities such as in environmentally friendly fire barriers, and high-performance and transparent gas barriers needed for encapsulation of organic electronics.

Self-assembled bioinspired nanocomposites: Mechanical properties governed by nanoconfined polymer layers

Macromolecular Chemistry: The Second Century

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ACS Spring 2020 National Meeting & Expo

The official archive and repository for all ACS Meetings & Expositions abstracts and select posters or presentations.