Accelerated Relaxation Kinetics of Anisotropic Colloidal Nanoparticles in Acceleration Fields beyond 7251 Times Gravity: Liquid Crystalline Self-Assembly with Higher Rates and Structural Orderliness

Gravity of the Earth (g) drives macroscopic differentiation of multiple phases with different volumetric mass densities in many chemical and physical processes. Herein, liquid crystalline phase separation of colloidal dispersions of rod-shaped cellulose nanoparticles in centrifugal acceleration fields up to 71061 meters per second squared (about 7251 g) was studied. Through non-ionic in-situ free radical polymerization initiated by the time-controllable redox reactions between tert-butyl hydroperoxide (oxidants) and thiourea (reductants) at room temperature (about 298 kelvins), ordered soft microstructures formed by entropy-driven self-assembly were immobilized within crosslinked polyacrylamide matrixes at various evolution stages (e.g., after 10, 30, or 60 minutes) in centrifuge tubes. According to cross-sectional optical and scanning electron microscopy, strong acceleration fields accelerated the movement velocity of discrete liquid crystalline tactoidal microphases, the coalescence of tactoids into continuous chiral nematic structures, as well as the translational and rotational relaxation rates of mesogenic nanorods at kinetically arrested states in high-viscosity concentrated colloidal liquid crystals, leading to the elimination of topological defects and improvements in structural orderliness.