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Functional Janus structured liquids and aerogels.

Authors :: Ghaffarkhah A
Hashemi SA
Ahmadijokani F
Goodarzi M
Riazi H
Mhatre SE
Zaremba O
Rojas OJ
Soroush M
Russell TP
Wuttke S
Kamkar M
Arjmand M
Source :: Nature communications [Nat Commun] 2023 Nov 28; Vol. 14 (1), pp. 7811. Date of Electronic Publication: 2023 Nov 28.
Publication Year :: 2023
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, Ti <subscript>3</subscript> C <subscript>2</subscript> T <subscript>x</subscript> /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., SE <subscript>T</subscript> ≈ 51 dB, SE <subscript>R</subscript> ≈ 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.<br /> (© 2023. The Author(s).)