Multivalent Patchy Colloids for Quantitative 3D Self-Assembly Studies

Marlous Kamp*, Bart De Nijs, Marjolein N. Van Der Linden, Isja De Feijter, Merel J. Lefferts, Antonio Aloi, Jack Griffiths, Jeremy J. Baumberg, Ilja K. Voets, Alfons Van Blaaderen

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticleAcademicpeer-review

Abstract

We report methods to synthesize sub-micron- and micron-sized patchy silica particles with fluorescently labeled hemispherical titania protrusions, as well as routes to efficiently characterize these particles and self-assemble these particles into non-close-packed structures. The synthesis methods expand upon earlier work in the literature, in which silica particles packed in a colloidal crystal were surface-patterned with a silane coupling agent. Here, hemispherical amorphous titania protrusions were successfully labeled with fluorescent dyes, allowing for imaging by confocal microscopy and super-resolution techniques. Confocal microscopy was exploited to experimentally determine the numbers of protrusions per particle over large numbers of particles for good statistical significance, and these distributions were compared to simulations predicting the number of patches as a function of core particle polydispersity and maximum separation between the particle surfaces. We self-assembled these patchy particles into open percolating gel networks by exploiting solvophobic attractions between the protrusions.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)2403-2418
Number of pages16
JournalLangmuir
Volume36
Issue number9
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 10 Mar 2020

Funding

We thank Ing. Hans D. Meeldijk for assistance with SAED, Dr. Thijs H. Besseling for advice on high-resolution confocal microscopy, Dr. Bo Peng for the SEM image of the sintered smectic crystal of rods ( SI ), Dannis ’t Hart for the micron-sized silica spheres of 1% polydispersity, and Dr. Zdenek Preisler and Dr. Michiel Hermes for useful discussions on simulations. The Light Microscopy core facility at Cancer Research UK—Cambridge Institute is gratefully acknowledged, in particular: Dr. Stefanie Reichelt for additional access to a STED confocal microscope, and Dr. Fadwa Joud for assisting with STED imaging. M.K. acknowledges financial support from The Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO) (Project 700.58.025) and the European Commission for a Marie Curie fellowship (Grant 7020005, SPARCLEs). B.d.N. acknowledges financial support from the Leverhulme Trust through an Early Career Fellowship and from the Newton Trust through matching funding. I.K.V. acknowledges financial support from The Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO VIDI Grant 723.014.006). J.J.B. acknowledges support from the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) UK through Grants EP/L027151/1, EP/R020965/1, and NanoDTC EP/L015978/1. Additionally, funding was received from the European Research Council under the European Unions Seventh Framework Programme (FP/2007-2013)/ERC Grant Agreement 291667 “HierarSACol”, as well as from The Netherlands Center for Multiscale Catalytic Energy Conversion (MCEC), an NWO Gravitation programme funded by the Ministry of Education, Culture and Science of the government of The Netherlands.

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