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Extensibility governs the flow-induced alignment of polymers and rod-like colloids

Vincenzo Calabrese1,*, Tatiana Porto Santos1, Carlos G. Lopez2, Minne Paul Lettinga3,4, Simon J. Haward1, and Amy Q. Shen1

  • 1Micro/Bio/Nanofluidics Unit, Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology Graduate University, 1919-1 Tancha, Onna-son, Okinawa 904-0495, Japan
  • 2RWTH Aachen University, Institute of Physical Chemistry, Landoltweg 2, 52074 Aachen, Germany
  • 3Laboratory for Soft Matter and Biophysics, KU Leuven, Celestijnenlaan 200D, B-3001 Leuven, Belgium
  • 4ICS-3, Institut für Weiche Materie, Forschungszentrum Jülich, D-52425 Jülich, Germany

  • *Corresponding author: vincenzo.calabrese@oist.jp
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Phys. Rev. Research 6, L012042 – Published 26 February, 2024

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevResearch.6.L012042

Abstract

Polymers and rod-like colloids (PaRC) adopt a favorable orientation under sufficiently strong flows. However, how the flow kinematics affect the alignment of such nanostructures according to their extensibility remains unclear. By analyzing the shear- and extension-induced alignment of chemically and structurally different PaRC, we show that extensibility is a key determinant of the structural response to the imposed kinematics. We propose a unified description of the effectiveness of extensional flow, compared to shearing flow, at aligning PaRC of different extensibility.

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Phys. Rev. Research 6, L012042– Published 26 February, 2024
  • Received 23 July 2023
  • Accepted 29 January 2024
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Published by the American Physical Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license. Further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the published article's title, journal citation, and DOI.

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