A cholesteric liquid crystal (ChLC) in a confined space has attracted significant scientific interest and has potential applications. ChLC microspheres have been obtained by devising processing such as a microfluidic technique. Herein, we adopted the self-assembly approach for the spontaneous formation of cellulosic ChLC microspheres. A functional block copolymer (BCP) was grafted to hydroxypropyl cellulose (HPC), making it amphiphilic to self-assembly in a w/o emulsion. The HPC segment aggregated in the aqueous phase under lyotropic conditions and produced the ChLC microspheres dispersed in the oil phase. The microspheres exhibited a topological transition between radial and bipolar while altering the molecular structure in terms of the molecular weight of BCP and the degree of substitution of HPC. The coexistence of inorganic salts in the aqueous HPC lyotropic phase changed the mesophase behavior as well. Such cellulosic ChLC microspheres will present opportunities to develop biobased optical devices and stimuli-responsive biomedical materials.

中文翻译：

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w / o乳液中自发形成的纤维素液晶微球的拓扑转变

密闭空间中的胆甾型液晶（ChLC）引起了广泛的科学兴趣并具有潜在的应用前景。通过设计诸如微流技术之类的方法已经获得了ChLC微球。在本文中，我们采用自组装方法自发形成纤维素ChLC微球。将功能性嵌段共聚物（BCP）接枝到羟丙基纤维素（HPC），使其在w / o乳液中具有两亲性以自组装。HPC片段在溶致条件下在水相中聚集，并产生了分散在油相中的ChLC微球。微球在径向和双极性之间表现出拓扑转变，同时根据BCP的分子量和HPC的取代度改变了分子结构。水性HPC溶致相中无机盐的共存也改变了中间相的行为。此类纤维素ChLC微球将为开发生物基光学设备和刺激性生物医学材料提供机会。