Related papers: Aggregation of colloidal nanoparticles in polymer …
The question of if silica nanoparticles can enhance the ionic conductivity of a polymer electrolyte above its crystallization temperature has remained unclear for the two decades following the first experiments on these systems. We use…
Assembled monolayers of colloidal particles are crucial for various applications, including opto-electronics, surface engineering, as well as light harvesting, and catalysis. A common approach for self-assembly is the drying of a colloidal…
We report small-angle x-ray scattering (SAXS) experiments on aqueous dispersions of colloidal silica with a broad monomodal size distribution (polydispersity 18%, size 8 nm). Over a range of volume fractions the silica particles segregate…
Compact layers containing embedded semiconductor particles consolidated using pulsed electric current sintering exhibit intense, broadband near-infrared reflectance. The composites consolidated from nano- or micro-silica powder have a…
Nanoparticles with hydrophobic capping ligands and amphiphilic phospholipids are both found to self-assemble into monolayer films when deposited on the air water interface. By separately measuring the anisotropic stress response of these…
The drying of colloidal suspensions leads to complex deposition patterns, accompanied by instabilities such as cracking and delamination. In this study, we experimentally investigate the coupled influence of particle surface charge and…
Using self-consistent field and density-functional theories, we first investigate colloidal self-assembling of colloid/polymer films confined between two soft surfaces grafted by polymers. With the increase of colloidal concentrations, the…
Adhesion between two surfaces depend on the chemical and the mechanical properties of both the materials. However, heterogeneities (surface or bulk) affect the adhesion between the two surfaces tremendously. In this work, we study the role…
The onset of structural arrest and glass formation in a concentrated suspension of silica nanoparticles in a water-lutidine binary mixture near its consolute point is studied by exploiting the near-critical fluid degrees of freedom to…
Physical properties of colloidal materials can be modified by addition of nanoparticles. Within a model of like-charged mixtures of particles governed by effective electrostatic interactions, we explore the influence of charged…
Building structures with hierarchical order through the self-assembly of smaller blocks is not only a prerogative of nature, but also a strategy to design artificial materials with tailored functions. We explore in simulation the…
Unrestricted particle transport through microfluidic channels is of paramount importance to a wide range of applications, including lab-on-a-chip devices. In this article, we study using video microscopy the electro-osmotic aggregation of…
We present a new material which displays anisotropic and mechanical properties tuneable during synthesis under magnetic field. It is formulated by mixing aqueous suspensions of polymer nanolatex and magnetic nanoparticles, coated by a thin…
Colloidal particles with appropriate wetting properties can become very strongly trapped at an interface between two immiscible fluids. We have harnessed this phenomenon to create a new class of soft materials with intriguing and…
Colloidal particles at complex fluid interfaces and within films assemble to form ordered structures with high degrees of symmetry via interactions that include capillarity, elasticity, and other fields like electrostatic charge. Here we…
During the last 3 years, our group has investigated extensively the complexation mechanism between neutral-polyelectrolyte block copolymers with oppositely charged species. These species are surfactant micelles, multivalent counterions and…
The paper presents a comprehensive analysis of elastic properties of polystyrene-based nanocomposites filled with different types of inclusions: small spherical particles (SiO2 and Al2O3), alumosilicates (montmorillonite, halloysite natural…
We consider the dynamic wetting and dewetting processes of films and droplets of complex liquids on planar surfaces, focusing on the case of colloidal suspensions, where the particle interactions can be sufficiently attractive to cause…
The drying of a colloidal dispersion can result in a gel phase defined as a porous matrix saturated in solvent. During the drying process, high mechanical stresses are generated. When these stresses exceed the strength of the material, they…
In this review, we address the issue of the electrostatic complexation between charged-neutral diblock copolymers and oppositely charged nanocolloids. We show that nanocolloids such as surfactant micelles and iron oxide magnetic…