Control over the assembly of colloidal building units is of great significance to practical applications, but is also interesting from a more fundamental point of view of understanding the self-assembly of nanostructured materials. Joining together different spherical nanoparticles in a defined manner allows control over the shape, composition and surface roughness of the nanocomposites. The preparation of such hierarchically organized structures can be accomplished by agglomeration of particles that are dispersed in an emulsion. The particles adsorb on the surface of the emulsion droplets (Pickering effect) and coagulate in a well-defined way during the evaporation of the (dispersed) oil phase. If the constituents consist of different materials, the resulting heteroaggregates feature both compositional and interfacial anisotropy, offering unprecedented perspectives for rationally designed functional colloids, which are of fundamental importance to a broad range of applications including sensing, photonic, and electronic devices.

Emulsion-templated assembly of nanoparticles

243rd National Meeting (2012)

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