The response of biological cells to applied stress is central to the functioning of living systems. The present disclosure is directed to systems, compositions and methods for rapidly reporting biomechanical properties of cells or cellular organelles at a single cell or population level.

The invention relates to a method for producing structurally coloured films, particles and interference pigments comprising cellulose nanocrystals, such as neutralised cellulose nanocrystals. The films and particles can be used as interference pigments or coloured particles such as glitters for various applications. The method comprises steps of depositing a nanocrystal suspension comprising cellulose nanocrystals onto a substrate: spreading the nanocrystal suspension across the substrate using a spreader: ageing the nanocrystal suspension to partially or completely recover the cholesteric structures lost during deposition and spreading: drying the deposited nanocrystal suspension so that the nanocrystals self-assemble to form a structurally coloured film: and annealing the structurally coloured film to increase the water resistance of the film. The structurally coloured film comprises nanocrystals which are organized into chiral nematic structures to provide the structural colour.

A patterned linear polarizer layer is obtained by shear coating a polymeric lyotropic liquid crystal solution on a coatable substrate, drying and treating the resulting polymer layer with a doping-passivation solution containing the dopant and multi-valent cations, where the patterned structure is obtained using various methods like restricting the doping process to certain areas of the polymer layer or discoloring the doping agent in certain areas of the linear polarizer or by selective removal of parts of the linear polarizer layer and others. The thickness of the dry linear polarizer coating layer is 2.0 micrometer or less.

The present describes a chiral nematic cellulose nanocrystal (CNC) film comprising: cellulose nanocrystals that self-assemble to form an iridescent CNC structure, wherein the self-assembled structure comprises a finger-print pattern of repeating bright and dark regions, defining a pitch of the iridescent film, where the pitch variable. Also described are conductive polymer nanocomposite based on the CNC film. Further described is the electrophoretic method of producing the chiral nematic cellulose nanocrystal film as well as the polymer nanocomposites and the apparatus used.

A composition and a method for producing mesoporous carbon materials with a chiral or achiral organization. In the method, a polymerizable inorganic monomer is reacted in the presence of nanocrystalline cellulose to give a material of inorganic solid with cellulose nanocrystallites organized in a chiral nematic organization. The cellulose can be carbonized through thermal treatment under inert atmosphere (e.g., nitrogen or argon) and the silica may subsequently be removed using aqueous solutions of sodium hydroxide (NaOH) or hydrogen fluoride (HF) to give the stable mesoporous carbon materials that retain the chiral nematic structure of the cellulose. These materials may be obtained as free-standing films with very high surface area. Through control of the reaction conditions the pore-size distribution may be varied from predominantly microporous to predominantly mesoporous materials. These are the first materials to use cellulose as both the structural template and carbon source for a mesoporous carbon material. These are also the first carbon materials to combine mesoporosity with long-range chiral ordering. Possible applications for these materials include: charge storage devices (e.g. supercapacitors and anodes for Li-ion batteries), adsorbents, gas purifiers, light-weight nanocomposite materials, catalyst supports (e.g., for chiral transformations), gas storage, and as a hard-template to generate other materials, preferably with chiral structures.

Illustrative embodiments of microdevices and methods of manufacturing such microdevices are disclosed. In at least one illustrative embodiment, one or more microdevices may be formed on a substrate, with each of the one or more microdevices comprising a body micromachined from a continuous film formed on the substrate, the continuous film having a controlled microstructure of cellulose nanocrystals (CNC).

The response of biological cells to applied stress is central to the functioning of living systems. The present disclosure is directed to systems, compositions and methods for rapidly reporting biomechanical properties of cells or cellular organelles at a single cell or population level.