Sensitive chemoselectivity of cellulose nanocrystal films

Abstract Cellulose nanocrystals (CNCs) self-assembled into a chiral nematic structure film is an advanced platform for the fabrication of fascinating sensing, photonic and chiral nematic materials. Despite extensive progress in the functions of CNCs, their chemoselectivity has rarely been reported. Here, we exploit a brand-new perspective of CNCs in chemoselectivity, which shows sensitive selectivity even between isomers of monosaccharides and disaccharide by generating discernible crystal patterns. This sensitive selectivity of glucose homologs is attributed to the selective interaction of carbohydrate–carbohydrate, which enables the tune of the photonic properties and chiral mesoporous structures. Moreover, based on the chemoselectivity, chiral mesoporous structures with tunable specific surface areas are assembled from CNC suspensions and glucose homologs. We envision that the sensitive chemoselectivity of CNC films could provide insights into the recognition of carbohydrates and the preparation of mesoporous carbon in numerous practical applications.