Functional Janus structured liquids and aerogels

Ahmadreza Ghaffarkhah; Seyyed Alireza Hashemi; Farhad Ahmadijokani; Milad Goodarzi; Hossein Riazi; Sameer E. Mhatre; Orysia Zaremba; Orlando J. Rojas; Masoud Soroush; Thomas P. Russell; Stefan Wuttke; Milad Kamkar; Mohammad Arjmand

doi:10.1038/s41467-023-43319-7

Nature Communications (Nov 2023)

Functional Janus structured liquids and aerogels

Ahmadreza Ghaffarkhah,
Seyyed Alireza Hashemi,
Farhad Ahmadijokani,
Milad Goodarzi,
Hossein Riazi,
Sameer E. Mhatre,
Orysia Zaremba,
Orlando J. Rojas,
Masoud Soroush,
Thomas P. Russell,
Stefan Wuttke,
Milad Kamkar,
Mohammad Arjmand

Affiliations

Ahmadreza Ghaffarkhah: Nanomaterials and Polymer Nanocomposites Laboratory, School of Engineering, University of British Columbia
Seyyed Alireza Hashemi: Nanomaterials and Polymer Nanocomposites Laboratory, School of Engineering, University of British Columbia
Farhad Ahmadijokani: Nanomaterials and Polymer Nanocomposites Laboratory, School of Engineering, University of British Columbia
Milad Goodarzi: Nanomaterials and Polymer Nanocomposites Laboratory, School of Engineering, University of British Columbia
Hossein Riazi: Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering, Drexel University
Sameer E. Mhatre: Bioproducts Institute, Department of Chemical & Biological Engineering, Department of Chemistry and Department of Wood Science, The University of British Columbia
Orysia Zaremba: Basque Center for Materials, Applications and Nanostructures (BCMaterials)
Orlando J. Rojas: Bioproducts Institute, Department of Chemical & Biological Engineering, Department of Chemistry and Department of Wood Science, The University of British Columbia
Masoud Soroush: Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering, Drexel University
Thomas P. Russell: Polymer Science and Engineering Department, University of Massachusetts Amherst
Stefan Wuttke: Basque Center for Materials, Applications and Nanostructures (BCMaterials)
Milad Kamkar: Department of Chemical Engineering, Waterloo Institute for Nanotechnology, University of Waterloo
Mohammad Arjmand: Nanomaterials and Polymer Nanocomposites Laboratory, School of Engineering, University of British Columbia

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-023-43319-7
Journal volume & issue: Vol. 14, no. 1
pp. 1 – 9

Abstract

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Abstract Janus structures have unique properties due to their distinct functionalities on opposing faces, but have yet to be realized with flowing liquids. We demonstrate such Janus liquids with a customizable distribution of nanoparticles (NPs) throughout their structures by joining two aqueous streams of NP dispersions in an apolar liquid. Using this anisotropic integration platform, different magnetic, conductive, or non-responsive NPs can be spatially confined to opposite sides of the original interface using magnetic graphene oxide (mGO)/GO, Ti3C2T x /GO, or GO suspensions. The resultant Janus liquids can be used as templates for versatile, responsive, and mechanically robust aerogels suitable for piezoresistive sensing, human motion monitoring, and electromagnetic interference (EMI) shielding with a tuned absorption mechanism. The EMI shields outperform their current counterparts in terms of wave absorption, i.e., SET ≈ 51 dB, SER ≈ 0.4 dB, and A = 0.91, due to their high porosity ranging from micro- to macro-scales along with non-interfering magnetic and conductive networks imparted by the Janus architecture.

Published in Nature Communications

ISSN: 2041-1723 (Online)
Publisher: Nature Portfolio
Country of publisher: United Kingdom
LCC subjects: Science
Website: https://www.nature.com/ncomms/

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