Abstract
Living organisms in drying environments build anisotropic structures and exhibit directionality through self-organization of biopolymers. However, the process of macro-scale assembly is still unknown. Here, we introduce a dissipative structure through a non-equilibrium process between hydration and deposition in the drying of a polysaccharide liquid crystalline solution. By controlling the geometries of the evaporation front in a limited space, multiple nuclei emerge to grow vertical membrane walls with macroscopic orientation. Notably, the membranes are formed through rational orientation of rod-like microassemblies along the dynamic three-phase contact line. Additionally, in the non-equilibrium state, a dissipative structure is ultimately immobilized as a macroscopically partitioned space by multiple vertical membranes. We foresee that such oriented membranes will be applicable to soft biomaterials with direction controllability, and the macroscopic space partitionings will aid in the understanding of the space recognition ability of natural products under drying environments.
Highlights
By utilizing interfacial or mechanical instability, it is possible to control the geometrical structures of soft materials at the macro-scale[1,2,3], e.g., fingering patterns of viscous liquids[4,5,6,7] and buckling patterns of gels during swelling/ deswelling processes[8,9,10,11]
We report a non-equilibrium process of the polysaccharide liquid crystalline (LC) solution through deposition and hydration during drying in a limited space
The transmitted light intensity was significantly increased around the interface, suggesting that the rod-like microdomains with lengths of several tens of a micrometer were integrated from the air-LC interface in parallel by capillary force[36]
Summary
By utilizing interfacial or mechanical instability, it is possible to control the geometrical structures of soft materials at the macro-scale[1,2,3], e.g., fingering patterns of viscous liquids[4,5,6,7] and buckling patterns of gels during swelling/ deswelling processes[8,9,10,11]. The sacran microdomains were fused and oriented parallel to the air-LC interface to form a single milliscale macrodomain in drying conditions. This integration to form a single macrodomain on Optical microscopic images of a dried membrane between glass slides observed from the XZ-plane.
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