Spherical, Dimpled, and Crumpled Hybrid Colloids with Tunable Surface Morphology

Abstract

Surface morphology is a tool to tune physical properties of colloidal suspensions such as the wettability, viscoelasticity, and depletion attractions. Existing synthesis methods to obtain colloids with a rough surface morphology often result in colloids with nontunable surface properties. Here, we developed a synthetic approach to obtain both spherical and shape-anisotropic hybrid colloids with tunable surface morphology. With our approach, monodisperse linear polystyrene colloids, obtained in large quantities using a dispersion polymerization method, are swollen and cross-linked with styrene and 3-(trimethoxysilyl)propyl methacrylate (TPM) in the presence of the polymerization inhibitor hydroquinone. We show that, by varying only two experimental parameters, the concentration of the inhibitor and of TPM during swelling linear polystyrene colloids, three different types of particles can be synthesized. At low TPM concentrations, spherical colloids are obtained where the surface roughness can be tuned by varying the hydroquinone concentration. At intermediate TPM concentrations, single-dimpled colloids are formed with tunable dimple size. High TPM concentrations yield crumpled colloids of various shapes. Additionally, we demonstrate that all particles can be used as templates for silica coating, resulting in electrostatically stabilized silica-coated hybrid colloids or silica shells with rough, smooth, dimpled, or crumbled surface morphology.

Colloid supported lipid bilayers for self-assembly

“…have a much higher and frequent variation in curvature. To investigate the effect of large curvature differences, we prepared two batches of polystyrene particles which only differed in their surface roughness and coated them with a silica layer following a Stöber method [33]. In Figure 2 we show that particles with some roughness (A) can be homogeneously coated with a bilayer (B) while particles with very rough surfaces (C) show an inhomogeneous bilayer (D).…”

Packing, entropic patchiness, and self-assembly of non-convex colloidal particles: A simulation perspective

“…The shape of colloidal particles is one of the most important features that dictates their complex collective behavior. As a result of recent advances in experimental techniques that allow the synthesis of colloidal particles with arbitrary shape and size [1][2][3][4] , it is currently possible to use these particles as building blocks for the selfassembly of complex structures. Colloidal particles are appealing not only for fundamental studies as they are often large enough to allow direct observation of their self-organisation and dynamics, but also for applications as it is their size what makes them suitable candidates for the fabrication of mesoscopic structures that are not easily attainable using molecular systems 5,6 .…”

Dimple Colloids with Tunable Cavity Size and Surface Functionalities

“…17−19 Despite the versatility and simplicity of the method, two conflicting mechanisms underlying cavity formation were reported in the current literature. 17−21 Huang et al, 17 Cheng et. al, 18 and Xie et.…”

“…al 19 and Meester et. al 21 suggested that buckling is the main driving force of the dimple formation.…”