The online cover of Science Advances this week features the assembly of nanoparticle surfactants at a solid-liquid interface using advanced microscopy techniques such as laser scanning confocal microscopy and atomic force microscopy. Materials scientists had explored the assembly of solids at a liquid interface for decades to understand ore (a complex and stable chemical compound) purification, emulsion and encapsulation processes. In a new report, Yu Chai and a research team at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, University of California Berkeley, the Hong Kong Polytechnic University and the Tohoku University, in the U.S., China and Japan, showed how electrostatic interactions between nanoparticles and ligands formed nanoparticle surfactants at water-oil interfaces. The resulting ‘jammed’ structures produced a solid-like layer. When the area density of the nanoparticle surfactants increased at the interface, further attachment required cooperative displacement of previously assembled nanoparticle surfactants. The high space-time resolution of their observations revealed the complex mechanism of attachment and the nature of nanoparticle assembly.
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Source: Phys.org