Cellulose-based systems are useful for many applications. However, the issue of self-organization under non-equilibrium conditions, which is ubiquitous in living matter, has scarcely been addressed in cellulose-based materials. Here, we show that quasi-2D preparations of a lyotropic cellulose-based cholesteric mesophase display travelling colourful patterns, which are generated by a chemical reaction-diffusion mechanism being simultaneous with the evaporation of solvents at the boundaries. These patterns involve spatial and temporal variation in the amplitude and sign of the helix´s pitch. We propose a simple model, based on a reaction-diffusion mechanism, which simulates the observed spatiotemporal colour behaviour.

基于纤维素的系统可用于许多应用。然而，在非平衡条件下的自组织问题在生物中普遍存在，在纤维素基材料中几乎没有得到解决。在这里，我们展示了基于溶致纤维素的胆甾醇中间相的准二维制备显示行进的彩色图案，这些图案是由化学反应扩散机制与边界处溶剂的蒸发同时产生的。这些模式涉及螺旋节距的幅度和符号的空间和时间变化。我们提出了一个基于反应扩散机制的简单模型，该模型模拟了观察到的时空颜色行为。