Figure 4

Calculated ionic strength of H⁺, OH⁻, Na⁺ and (a) and the ionic strength I of CNC suspensions as a function of the pH (b), where ionic strength I was increased slightly at pH = 2~10 shown in (c). Calculated Debye length λ_D (d), effective diameter D_eff (e) and twist parameter h (f) as a function of the pH. (g) Schematic of the chiral nematic phase with large displacement angle β₁ with small pitch \({{\rm{p}}}_{1}=2{\rm{\pi }}d/{{\rm{\beta }}}_{1}\) (left), and chiral nematic phase with small displacement angle β₂ with long pitch \({{\rm{p}}}_{2}=2{\rm{\pi }}d/{{\rm{\beta }}}_{2}\) (right). As the displacement angle β decreased (\({{\rm{\beta }}}_{1} > {{\rm{\beta }}}_{2}\)), the pitch increased (\({{\rm{p}}}_{1} > {{\rm{p}}}_{2}\)).