Hierarchical self-assembly of 3D lattices from polydisperse anisometric colloids

Binbin Luo, Ahyoung Kim, John W. Smith, Zihao Ou, Zixuan Wu, Juyeong Kim and Qian Chen ()
Additional contact information
Binbin Luo: University of Illinois
Ahyoung Kim: University of Illinois
John W. Smith: University of Illinois
Zihao Ou: University of Illinois
Zixuan Wu: University of Illinois
Juyeong Kim: University of Illinois
Qian Chen: University of Illinois

Nature Communications, 2019, vol. 10, issue 1, 1-9

Abstract: Abstract Colloids are mainly divided into two types defined by size. Micron-scale colloids are widely used as model systems to study phase transitions, while nanoparticles have physicochemical properties unique to their size. Here we study a promising yet underexplored third type: anisometric colloids, which integrate micrometer and nanometer dimensions into the same particle. We show that our prototypical system of anisometric silver plates with a high polydispersity assemble, unexpectedly, into an ordered, three-dimensional lattice. Real-time imaging and interaction modeling elucidate the crucial role of anisometry, which directs hierarchical assembly into secondary building blocks—columns—which are sufficiently monodisperse for further ordering. Ionic strength and plate tip morphology control the shape of the columns, and therefore the final lattice structures (hexagonal versus honeycomb). Our joint experiment–modeling study demonstrates potentials of encoding unconventional assembly in anisometric colloids, which can likely introduce properties and phase behaviors inaccessible to micron- or nanometer-scale colloids.

Date: 2019
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-019-09787-6 Abstract (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nat:natcom:v:10:y:2019:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-019-09787-6

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.nature.com/ncomms/

DOI: 10.1038/s41467-019-09787-6

Access Statistics for this article

Nature Communications is currently edited by Nathalie Le Bot, Enda Bergin and Fiona Gillespie

More articles in Nature Communications from Nature
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().