The acoustic current at the origin of the vertical orientation of cellulose nanocrystals

Using a specially designed filtration cell, they demonstrated that cellulose nanocrystals can be oriented into three distinct zones: vertical, isotropic, and horizontal—thus mimicking the structure of articular cartilage.

This work, published in Nanoscale, shows that this orthotropic organization emerges beyond a certain transmembrane pressure threshold, suggesting that the accumulation of particles near the membrane creates the confined conditions necessary for the establishment of such a flow. Rayleigh acoustic streaming was observed via micro-PIV, revealing that the ultrasound-induced flow plays a key role in the orientation of the CNCs. These results open new avenues for designing bio-inspired materials structured at the microscopic scale.