Understanding the self-assembly of charged nanoparticles at the water/oil interface

We present a thermodynamic evaluation of the self-assembly of charged nanometer-sized particles at the water/oil interface. The chemical potentials of the nanoparticles in the bulk (aqueous) phase and at the water/oil interface are calculated taking into account interfacial energies, van der Waals i...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inPhysical chemistry chemical physics : PCCP Vol. 8; no. 33; p. 3828
Main Authors Reincke, François, Kegel, Willem K, Zhang, Hao, Nolte, Marc, Wang, Dayang, Vanmaekelbergh, Daniel, Möhwald, Helmuth
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published England 01.01.2006
Subjects
Glass - chemistry
Gold - chemistry
Heptanes - chemistry
Hydrogen-Ion Concentration
Microscopy, Confocal - methods
Nanoparticles - chemistry
Oils
Surface Plasmon Resonance - methods
Surface Properties
Water
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Summary:We present a thermodynamic evaluation of the self-assembly of charged nanometer-sized particles at the water/oil interface. The chemical potentials of the nanoparticles in the bulk (aqueous) phase and at the water/oil interface are calculated taking into account interfacial energies, van der Waals interactions, and electrostatic repulsions. An isotherm of the interfacial particle density as a function of the surface charge density on the particles is obtained and compared with experimental results on gold and CdTe nanoparticles self-assembled at the water/heptane interface. Our model provides a semi-quantitative explanation for the spontaneous self-assembly of several types of metallic and semiconducting charged nanoparticles upon reduction of their surface charge.
ISSN:1463-9076
1463-9084
DOI:10.1039/b604535a