Surfactant‐Assisted Emulsion Self‐Assembly of Nanoparticles into Hollow Vesicle‐Like Structures and 2D Plates. (20th September 2016)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Park, Ji‐eun; Hickey, Danielle Reifsnyder; Jun, Sangmi; Kang, Seulki; Hu, Xiaole; Chen, Xi‐Jun; Park, So‐Jung
• Is Part Of: Advanced functional materials. Volume 26:Number 43(2016)
• Page Start: 7791
• Page End: 7798
• Publication Date: 2016-09-20
• Subjects: emulsions -- hollow structures -- nanoparticles -- self‐assembly -- surfactants; Materials -- Periodicals; Chemical vapor deposition -- Periodicals; 620.11
• DOI: 10.1002/adfm.201603971
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1616-301X

Abstract

Abstract : The emulsion‐based self‐assembly of nanoparticles into low‐dimensional superparticles of hollow vesicle‐like assemblies is reported. Evaporation of the oil phase at relatively low temperatures from nanoparticle‐containing oil‐in‐water emulsion droplets leads to the formation of stable and uniform sub‐micrometer vesicle‐like assembly structures in water. This result is in contrast with those from many previously reported emulsion‐based self‐assembly methods, which produce solid spherical assemblies. It is found that extra surfactants in both the oil and water phases play a key role in stabilizing nanoscale emulsion droplets and capturing hollow assembly structures. Systematic investigation into what controls the morphology in emulsion self‐assembly is carried out, and the approach is extended to fabricate more complex rattle‐like structures and 2D plates. These results demonstrate that the emulsion‐based assembly is not limited to typical thermodynamic spherical assembly structures and can be used to fabricate various types of interesting low‐dimensional assembly structures. Abstract : Nanoparticles can be organized into hollow vesicle‐like structures and 2D plates by the surfactant‐assisted emulsion‐based self‐assembly. The results underscore the importance of surfactants in interfacial self‐assembly and demonstrate that emulsion self‐assembly can be used to fabricate unusual low‐dimensional assembly structures.