Exploring Nanofibrous Networks with X-ray Photon Correlation Spectroscopy

TL;DR

This study uses X-ray Photon Correlation Spectroscopy to analyze the nanoscale dynamics of gold nanoparticles in cellulose nanofiber networks, revealing how network density affects particle motion and pore structure.

Contribution

It introduces a combined experimental and simulation approach to connect nanoparticle dynamics with pore sizes in nanofibrous networks, advancing structural control understanding.

Findings

Increased CNF concentration leads to subdiffusive nanoparticle motion.

Dynamic modes correlate with pore sizes and transport properties.

The method links nanoscale dynamics to network structure.

Abstract

Nanofibrous networks are the foundation and natural building strategy for all life forms on our planet. Apart from providing structural integrity to cells and tissues, they also provide a porous scaffold allowing transport of substances, where the resulting properties rely on the nanoscale network structure. Recently, there has been a great deal of interest in extracting and reassembling biobased nanofibers to create sustainable, advanced materials with applications ranging from high-performance textiles to artificial tissues. However, achieving structural control of the extracted nanofibers is challenging as it is strongly dependent on the extraction methods and source materials. Furthermore, the small nanofiber cross-sections and fast Brownian dynamics make them notoriously difficult to characterize in dispersions. In this work, we study the diffusive motion of spherical gold nanoparticles in semi-dilute networks of cellulose nanofibers (CNFs) using X-ray Photon Correlation Spectroscopy (XPCS). We find that the motion becomes increasingly subdiffusive with higher CNF concentration, where the dynamics can be decomposed into several superdiffusive relaxation modes in reciprocal space. Using simulations of confined Brownian dynamics in combination with simulated XPCS-experiments, we observe that the dynamic modes can be connected to pore sizes and inter-pore transport properties in the network. The demonstrated analytical strategy by combining experiments using tracer particles with a digital twin may be the key to understand nanoscale properties of nanofibrous networks.