Nanoparticle Assemblies into Luminescent Dendrites in Shrinking Microdroplets

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• 作者：Taisuke Kojima ; Kenji Hirai ; Yunlong Zhou ; Priyan Weerappuli ; Shuichi Takayama ; Nicholas A. Kotov
• 刊名：Langmuir
• 出版年：2016
• 出版时间：November 29, 2016
• 年：2016
• 卷：32
• 期：47
• 页码：12468-12475
• 全文大小：522K
• ISSN：1520-5827

文摘

The self-assembly of nanoparticles (NPs) is essential for emerging dispersion-based energy-conscious technologies. Of particular interest are micro- and macro-scale self-organizing superstructures that can bridge 2D/3D processing scales. Here we report the spontaneous assembly of CdTe NPs within an aqueous microdroplet suspended in soybean oil. The gradual diffusion of the water into the surrounding medium results in shrinking of the microdroplet, and a concomitant formation of branched assemblies from CdTe NPs that evolve in size from ∼50 μm to ∼1000 μm. The fractal dimension of NP assemblies increases from ∼1.7 to ∼1.9 during the assembly process. We found that constituents of the soybean oil enter the aqueous solution across the microdroplet interface and affect NP assembly. The obtained NP dendrites can be further altered morphologically by illumination with light that results in the disassembly of the NP dendrites. The use of this microheterogeneous dispersion platform with partially soluble hydrophilic and hydrophobic solvents highlights the sensitivity of the NP assembly process to environment and presents an opportunity to explore droplet-confined NP assembly.