Self-assembly of self-limiting monodisperse supraparticles from polydisperse nanoparticles

Abstract

Nanoparticles are known to self-assemble into larger structures through growth processes that typically occur continuously and depend on the uniformity of the individual nanoparticles. Here, we show that inorganic nanoparticles with non-uniform size distributions can spontaneously assemble into uniformly sized supraparticles with core-shell morphologies. This self-limiting growth process is governed by a balance between electrostatic repulsion and van der Waals attraction, which is aided by the broad polydispersity of the nanoparticles. The generic nature of the interactions creates flexibility in the composition, size and shape of the constituent nanoparticles, and leads to a large family of self-assembled structures, including hierarchically organized colloidal crystals.

Defect tolerance and the effect of structural inhomogeneity in plasmonic DNA-nanoparticle superlattices

“…The use of imperfect building blocks in bottom-up nanoparticle assemblies often results in defects, grain boundaries, and lattice strain (30)(31)(32)(33)(34)(35). In the systems studied in this work, molecular dynamics simulations suggest that DNA-assembled particles can exhibit 5-10% variation in their position due to the dynamic reorganization that occurs as interparticle linkages break and reform (36).…”

Generalized self-assembly of scalable two-dimensional transition metal oxide nanosheets

“…Surfactant selfassembly has been successfully employed in the synthesis of 0D, 1D and 3D metal oxide nanostructures or mesoporous structures; however, the synthesis of 2D metal oxides still lacks systematic studies [19][20][21][22][23] . Our concept for surfactant self-assembly of ultrathin 2D metal oxide nanosheets, as shown in Fig.…”

One-Step Microwave-Assisted Green Synthesis of Luminescent N-Doped Carbon Dots from Sesame Seeds for Selective Sensing of Fe(III)

“…C.dots are spherical, oxygenous carbon nanoparticles with size below 10 nm. C.dots akin to Q.dots show several interesting properties such as excitation-dependent emission, chemical and photostability, enhanced fluorescence quantum yields and the possibility of fine-tuning the sensing properties by surface modification [5][6][7][8][9][10][11] In order to improve the photophysical and photochemical properties of C.dots, hetero-atom doped C.dots are synthesized by different ways. Among them, nitrogendoped C.dots received much attention because of their good biocompatibility and the related broad applications in the areas of bio-imaging, electrocatalysis and sensors 25,26 .…”

“…Materials like lipids, natural and synthetic polymers, carbohydrates, surfactants and dendrimers are used as drug carriers [1][2][3] . The drug conjugate can be designed for improving its potential for complex - interactions towards the target moiety and drug [4][5][6][7] . Biological materials are eco-friendly, but they have limitation with regard to the proposed application as they are less durable in terms of mechanical strength and resistance to corrosion.…”