Skip to main content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Official websites use .gov
A .gov website belongs to an official government organization in the United States.

Secure .gov websites use HTTPS
A lock ( ) or https:// means you’ve safely connected to the .gov website. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites.

Preparation and Characterization of Patchy Particles

Published

Author(s)

Thuy Chastek, Steven D. Hudson, Vincent A. Hackley

Abstract

The self-assembled organization of partilces depends on the symmetry of their interactions, and strides are being made in producing nanoaparticles of controlled shape and functionalization. This paper describes the use of particles adsorption to control and detect surface modification, particle symmetry, and assembly shape. Charged polystyrene (PS) spheres (600 nm, and 1.2 micron in diameter) were spread as a monolayer on a charged film. A randomly adsorbed monolayer of particles was formed after moderate heating (80 ?C for 60 s). After coating the spheres with an oppositely charged polymer and releasing them for the charged film, they had a small charged area on their surface. This lithographic patch provided sufficient area to associate with only a single oppositely charged particle of comparable size, and resulted in the controlled formation of anisotropic doublets. Self aggregation of patchy particles depends on the ionic strength.At a high salt concentration (0.5 M NaCl or higher) doublets formed within 1 day, whereas formation required longer time (>3 d) at a low salt concentration (0.1 M or lower). Additionally, a strategy that added oppositely charged particles that were smaller than the uncoated surface area of the PS spheres was used to determine the size of this area. The size of the uncoated area was evaluated by counting the numbers of small charged particles that attached to it. For example, one to five 160 nm PS particles could attach to an uncoated area on a 1.2 micron PS sphere.
Citation
Langmuir
Volume
24

Keywords

colloids, nanoparticles, patchy particles, self-assembly

Citation

Chastek, T. , Hudson, S. and Hackley, V. (2008), Preparation and Characterization of Patchy Particles, Langmuir, [online], https://tsapps.nist.gov/publication/get_pdf.cfm?pub_id=852780 (Accessed March 28, 2024)
Created November 14, 2008, Updated February 19, 2017