Tunable Assembly of Heterogeneously Charged Colloids
Category: Scientific HighlightsPublished in Nano Letters
ABSTRACT:
The self-assembly of colloidal particles is a route to designed materials production that combines high flexibility, cost effectiveness, and the opportunity to create ordered structures at length scales ranging from nano- to micrometers. For many practical applications in electronics, photovoltaics, and biomimetic material synthesis, ordered mono- and bilayers are often needed. Here we present a novel and simple way to tune via external parameters the ordering of heterogeneously charged colloids into quasi two-dimensional structures. Depending on the charges of the underlying substrate and of the particles, a rich and versatile assembly scenario takes place, resulting from the complex interplay between directional attractive and repulsive particle?particle and particle?substrate interactions. Upon subtle variations of the relative charge of the system components, emerging via pH modification, reversible changes either from extended aggregates to a monomeric phase or from triangular to square domains are observed.
Figure: Analysis of the particle−particle energy, ecc, for simplified, |
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Bianchi E., Likos C.N., Kahl G. (2014), Tunable Assembly of Heterogeneously Charged Colloids, Nano Lett. 14, 3412–3418. DOI:10.1021/nl500934v, OpenAccess
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