Manipulating and monitoring nanoparticles in micellar thin film superstructures

Jan Bart Hove, Fijs W. B. Leeuwen and Aldrik H. Velders ()
Additional contact information
Jan Bart Hove: Wageningen University & Research
Fijs W. B. Leeuwen: Wageningen University & Research
Aldrik H. Velders: Wageningen University & Research

Nature Communications, 2018, vol. 9, issue 1, 1-8

Abstract: Abstract Understanding the dynamics of discrete self-assembled structures under influence of external triggers is of interest to harvest the potential of nano- and mesoscale materials. In particular, controlling the hierarchical organization of (macro)molecular and nanoparticle building blocks in monolayer superstructures is of paramount importance for tuning properties and characteristics. Here we show how the electron beam in cryo-transmission electron microscopy can be exploited to induce and follow local migration of building blocks and global migration of micellar aggregates inside micrometer-sized superstructures. We employ stroboscopic exposure to heat up and convert the vitrified superstructure into a liquid-like thin film under cryogenic conditions, resulting in controlled evaporation of water that finally leads to rupture of the micelle-containing superstructure. Micelle-embedded nanoparticles prove a powerful tool to study the complex hierarchically built-up superstructures, and to visualize both global movement of individual dendrimicelles and local migration of nanoparticles inside the micellar core during the exposure series.

Date: 2018
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-018-07568-1 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:9:y:2018:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-018-07568-1

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

DOI: 10.1038/s41467-018-07568-1

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 ().