Related papers: Assembling Inorganic Nanocrystal Gels
The colloidal processing of nearly monodisperse and highly crystalline single-domain ferroelectric or ferromagnetic nanocubes is a promising route to produce superlattice structures for integration into next-generation devices, whereas…
We use time-resolved mechanical spectroscopy to offer a detailed picture of the gelation dynamics of cellulose nanocrystal (CNC) suspensions following shear cessation in the presence of salt. CNCs are charged, rodlike colloids that…
We present experiments and simulations on cyclically sheared colloidal gels, and probe their behaviour on several different length scales. The shearing induces structural changes in the experimental gel, changing particles' neighborhoods…
Natural and synthetic multi-component gels display emergent properties, which implies that they are more than just the sum of their components. This warrants the investigation of the role played by inter-species interactions in shaping gel…
We study by simulation the physics of two colloidal particles in a cholesteric liquid crystal with tangential order parameter alignment at the particle surface. The effective force between the pair is attractive at short range and favors…
Elastic sheets with macroscopic dimensions are easy to deform by bending and stretching. Yet shaping nanometric sheets by mechanical manipulation is hard. Here we show that nanoparticle self-assembly could be used to this end. We…
DNA is an ideal candidate to organize matter on the nanoscale, primarily due to the specificity and complexity of DNA based interactions. Recent advances in this direction include the self-assembly of colloidal crystals using DNA grafted…
Crystal defects crucially influence the properties of crystalline materials and have been extensively studied. Even for the simplest type of defect - the point defect - however, basic properties such as their diffusive behavior, and their…
Many biological, culinary, and engineering processes lead to the co-encapsulation of several soft particles within a liquid interface. In these situations the particles are bound together by the capillary forces that deform them and…
The structural evolution of a nano-powder by repeated dispersion and settling can lead to characteristic fractal substructures. This is shown by numerical simulations of a two-dimensional model agglomerate of adhesive rigid particles. The…
Self-assembly processes allow us to design and create complex nanostructures using molecules as building blocks and surfaces as scaffolds. This autonomous driven construction is possible due to a complex thermodynamic balance of…
Colloidal self-assembly -- the spontaneous organization of colloids into ordered structures -- has been considered key to produce next-generation materials. However, the present-day staggering variety of colloidal building blocks and the…
A promising approach of designing mesostructured materials with novel physical behavior is to combine unique optical and electronic properties of solid nanoparticles with long-range ordering and facile response of soft matter to weak…
We investigate the thermodynamics and percolation regimes of model binary mixtures of patchy colloidal particles. The particles of each species have three sites of two types, one of which promotes bonding of particles of the same species…
Solution-phase bottom up self-assembly of nanocrystals into superstructures such as ordered superlattices is an attractive strategy to generate functional materials of increasing complexity, including very recent advances that incorporate…
We study mutual alignment and interactions between colloidal particles of dissimilar shapes and dimensions when dispersed in a nematic host fluid. Convex pentagonal and concave starfruit-shaped nanoprisms and microspheres induce dipolar or…
DNA-mediated multivalent interactions between colloidal particles have been extensively applied for their ability to program bulk phase behaviour and dynamic processes. Exploiting the competition between different types of DNA-DNA bonds,…
Aiming at fabrication of hybrid plasmonic-photonic crystals, gel-immobilized colloidal crystals made of a polystyrene colloidal suspension and an N-(Hydroxy methyl)acrylamid-based gel were immersed into an aqueous dispersion of gold…
In this work, we discuss the quantum mechanics of many-body systems i.e. hybrid microgel consisting of negatively charged anionic microgels possessing thick sheath of water molecules solvating its protruding anionic moieties and…
The specificity and thermal reversibility of DNA interactions have enabled the self-assembly of crystal structures, self-replicating materials and colloidal molecules. Grafting DNA onto liquid interfaces of emulsions leads to exciting new…