Non-affine structural evolution of soft colloidal crystalline latex films under stretching as observed via synchrotron X-ray scattering

A polymer dispersion consisting of soft latex spheres with a diameter of 135 nm was used to produce a crystalline film with face-centered cubic (fcc) packing of the spheres. Different from conventional small-molecule and hard-sphere colloidal crystals, the crystalline latex film in the present case is soft (i.e., easily deformable). The structural evolution of this soft colloidal latex film under stretching was investigated by in-situ synchrotron ultra-small-angle X-ray scattering. The film exhibits polycrystalline scattering behavior corresponding to fcc structure. Stretching results not only in a large deformation of the crystallographic structure but also in considerable nonaffine deformation at high draw ratios. The unexpected nonaffine deformation was attributed to slippage between rows of particles and crystalline grain boundaries. The crystalline structure remains intact even at high deformation, suggesting that directional anisotropic colloidal crystallites can be easily produced.     

Close-packed colloidal crystalline arrays composed of polystyrene latex coated with titania nanosheets

We have demonstrated that polystyrene latex coated with titania nanosheets can be fabricated into a close-packed colloidal crystalline array, and that these coated colloidal spheres can be used to control the peak position of optical stop bands through the coating. The titania-nanosheets-coated polystyrene latex was prepared by the layer-by-layer (LBL) assembly coating process, involving alternating lamination of cationic polyelectrolytes and anionic titania nanosheets on monodisperse polystyrene latex particles. The Bragg diffraction peak of the colloidal crystalline array shifted to longer wavelengths with the coating of titania nanosheets. This red shift was caused by an increase in refractive index upon coating, as revealed by angle-resolved reflection spectra measurements. The current work suggests new possibilities for the creation of advanced colloidal crystals having tunable optical properties from tailored colloidal spheres.     

Fabrication of nanopatterned films of bovine serum albumin and staphylococcal protein A using latex particle lithography

Arrays of protein nanostructures can be formed on surfaces such as mica(0001) and Au(111) using lithography with polystyrene latex particles. To create arrays of protein nanostructures, monodisperse latex spheres are mixed with the desired protein (e.g. BSA, protein A or IgG) and deposited onto substrates. Protein-coated nanospheres self-assemble into organized crystalline layers when dried on flat surfaces. After rinsing with water, dried latex spheres are displaced to expose periodic arrays of uncovered circular cavities. The immobilized proteins remain attached to the surface and form nanopatterns over broad areas (microns) corresponding to the thickness of a single layer of proteins. The nanostructures of immobilized proteins maintain the order and periodicity of the latex scaffold. The morphology and diameter of the protein nanostructures are tuneable by selecting the ratios of protein-to-latex and the diameters of latex spheres. Well-defined nanostructured surfaces of proteins supply a tool for fundamental investigations of protein binding interactions in biological systems at the nanoscale and have potential applications in biochip and biosensing systems.     

Study of bulk morphology of polymer latex films using laser confocal fluorescence microscopy

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DEFORMATION OF SOFT COLLOIDAL CRYSTALLINE STRUCTURE — THEORETICAL CONSIDERATIONS AND EXPERIMENTAL EVIDENCES BY SYNCHROTRON SMALL-ANGLE X-RAY SCATTERING ON TENSILE STRETCHED POLYMERIC LATEX FILM

 Films obtained via drying a polymeric latex dispersion are normally colloidal crystalline where latex particles are packed into a face centered cubic (fcc) structure. Different from conventional atomic crystallites or hard sphere colloidal crystallites, the crystalline structure of these films is normally deformable due to the low glass transition temperature of the latex particles. Upon tensile deformation, depending on the drawing direction with respect to the normal of specific crystallographic plane, one observes different crystalline structural changes. Three typical situations where crystallographic c-axis, body diagonal or face diagonal of the fcc structure of the colloidal crystallites being parallel to the stretching direction were investigated. Tilting angle and d-spacing of several crystallographic planes as a function of draw ratio at each situation were derived. Experimental evidences for such relationships were also given by considering in-situ synchrotron small angle X-ray scattering data of a typical latex film during stretching. It turns out that the experimental results are fully in accordance with the mathematical calculations.     

Metal patterning on silicon surface by site-selective electroless deposition through colloidal crystal templating

Site-selective Cu deposition on a Si substrate was achieved by a combination of colloidal crystal templating, hydrophobic treatment, and electroless plating. Uniformly sized nano/microstructures were produced on the substrate using a monolayer coating of colloidal spheres instead of a conventional resist. The Cu patterns obtained were of two different types: networklike honeycomb and isolated-island patterns with a minimum period of 200 nm. Each ordered pattern with the desired intervals was composed of clusters of Cu nanoparticles with a size range of 50-100 nm. By the present method, it is possible to control the periodicity of metal arrays by changing the diameter of the colloidal spheres used as an initial mask and to adjust the shape of the metal patterns by changing the mask structure for electroless plating.     

Formation of ordered mesoporous films from in situ structure inversion of azo polymer colloidal arrays

This work shows that mesoporous polymeric films with spherical and elliptical pores can be obtained by in situ structure inversion of the azo polymer colloid arrays through selective interaction with solvent. The epoxy-based azo polymer contained both the pseudo-stilbene-type azo chromophores and the hydrophilic carboxyl groups. The colloidal spheres of the azo polymer were prepared by gradual hydrophobic aggregation of the polymeric chains in THF-H2O media, induced by a steady increase in the water content. Ordered 2D arrays of the hexagonally close-packed colloidal spheres were obtained by the vertical deposition method. After the solvent (THF) annealing, the ordered 2D arrays were directly transformed to mesoporous films through the sphere-pore inversion. Under the same condition, the 2D arrays composed of the ellipsoidal colloids, which were obtained by the irradiation of a polarized Ar+ laser beam on the colloidal sphere arrays, could be transformed to films with ordered elliptical pores. To our knowledge, this is the first example to demonstrate that mesoporous structures can be directly formed from the colloidal arrays of a homopolymer through structure inversion. This observation can shed new light on the nature of self-assembly processes and provide a feasible approach to fabricate mesoporous structures without the infiltration-removal step. By exploring the photoresponsive properties of the materials, mesoporous film with special pore structure and properties can be expected.     

Fabrication of monodisperse asymmetric colloidal clusters by using contact area lithography (CAL)

We report a new fabrication method of asymmetric colloidal clusters by using contact area lithography with site-selective growth. Nanometric surface patterns (approximately 44, 60, and 81 nm in diameter) were prepared by coating surfaces with self-assembled monolayers (SAMs; octadecyltrichlorosilane (OTS) in this study) except the contact area either between colloidal particles or between colloids and substrate. Nanoscale site-specific heterogeneous nucleation and growth of oxide materials of titanium were studied using the patterns of OTS-SAMs onto the either flat or curved surfaces of SiO2. Experimental results suggest that a combination of the large difference in the surface energy between the growing and surrounding surfaces and the diffusion-controlled growth leads to complete nanoscale site specificity. We also fabricated superstructrures of silica spheres with hemispheres of titania (<20 nm in dimension) on their surfaces and discussed the optical properties of colloidal films consisting of the monodisperse asymmetric colloidal clusters in terms of photonic band gap.     

DEFORMATION OF SOFT COLLOIDAL CRYSTALLINE STRUCTURE-THEORETICAL CONSIDERATIONS AND EXPERIMENTAL EVIDENCES BY SYNCHROTRON SMALL-ANGLE X-RAY SCATTERING ON TENSILE STRETCHED POLYMERIC LATEX FILM

Films obtained via drying a polymeric latex dispersion are normally colloidal crystalline where latex particles are packed into a face centered cubic (fcc) structure.Different from conventional atomic crystallites or hard sphere colloidal crystallites,the crystalline structure of these films is normally deformable due to the low glass transition temperature of the latex particles.Upon tensile deformation,depending on the drawing direction with respect to the normal of specific crystallographic plane,one ...     

P(HEMA-co-AM)胶体晶体膜的制备及其性能

将聚苯乙烯胶体晶体嵌入丙烯酰胺(AM)与甲基丙烯酸羟乙酯(HEMA)的交联共聚膜中,制备了共聚物P(AM-co-HEMA)胶体晶体膜.研究了单体配比及交联剂N,N'-亚甲基双(丙烯酰胺)(MBA)对胶体晶体膜的光子带隙峰位置、拉伸强度和断裂伸长率的影响.结果表明:当n(HEMA)/n(AM)≤2.33时,光子带隙峰较明...     

聚(苯乙烯-co-甲基丙烯酸)胶体晶体原位反转制备孔阵列研究

利用甲苯浸泡法,将聚(苯乙烯-co-甲基丙烯酸)(P(Sc-o-MAA))胶体晶体转变成孔阵列,利用扫描电镜和原子力显微镜详细研究了胶体球在向孔转变过程中结构的变化细节,同时利用表面元素分析法检测其反转前后元素含量的变化.结果表明,在选择性溶剂作用下,胶体球经历了溶胀—粘连—破裂—溶解—成孔—扩张等一系列变化,处于内核的聚苯乙烯被溶出胶体球后不仅填充到球与球之间的空隙中而且扩散到了溶剂中,而胶体球表面富集的聚甲基丙烯酸链段与溶出的聚苯乙烯混合物则主要对孔结构起固定和支撑作用,但长时间的甲苯浸泡最终会破坏孔的结构和阵列的完整性.     

pH值和前驱体用量对核壳结构PSt/SiO2复合微球结构形态的影响

首先通过无皂乳液聚合法制得表面含羧基、粒径为360 nm的单分散聚苯乙烯(PSt)种子乳液,并在EtOH/H2O混合介质中用γ-氨丙基三乙氧基硅烷(KH-550)对其进行改性,制得表面含有活性硅乙氧基并带有正电荷的改性PSt乳胶粒,然后再加入原硅酸乙酯(TEOS)进行共水解与共缩聚反应,制备出了核壳结构PSt/SiO2...     

Structural reorganization of a polymeric latex film during dry sintering at elevated temperatures

Structural rearrangement in a latex powder during dry sintering at temperatures higher than the minimum film formation temperature was investigated by means of synchrotron small-angle X-ray scattering. Two major effects were identified: (1) Deformation of latex particles leads to a closure of voids between them and an extensive perfectioning of the face centered cubic colloidal crystalline ordering. Such an improvement of the colloidal crystalline structure involves preferential crystal growth along certain crystallographic directions as was evidenced by the measured unmatched relative diffraction intensity distribution of the crystallographic (111) and (220) planes. (2) Interdiffusion of polymeric chains between adjacent particles promotes a nanometer sized aggregation of nonpolymeric materials previously located in the interstices between particles. Size and size distribution of the aggregates at different dry sintering conditions were evaluated by using a model considering spheres dispersed in the system.     

Three-dimensional colloidal crystals with a well-defined architecture

Monodisperse silica spheres with diameters of 220-1100 nm were prepared by hydrolysis of tetraethyl orthosilicate (TEOS) in an alcoholic medium in the presence of water and ammonia. By grafting vinyl or amino groups onto silica surfaces using the coupling agents allyltrimethoxysilane and aminopropyltriethoxysilane, respectively, amphiphilic silica spheres were obtained and could be organized to form a stable Langmuir film at the air-water interface. The controlled transfer of this monolayer of particles onto a solid substrate gave us the ability to build three-dimensional regular crystals with a well-defined thickness and organization. These colloidal crystals diffract light in the UV, the visible, and the near-infrared (NIR) spectral regions, depending on the size of the silica spheres and according to Bragg's law. The depth of the photonic stop band can be tuned by varying the number of deposited layers of particles. By using successive depositions, we could prepare multilayered films with silica spheres of different sizes. The thickness of each slab in the binary crystals can be tuned at the layer level, while the crystalline order of each layer is well preserved.     

种子表面改性法制备核壳结构PSt/SiO_2复合微球

首先采用无皂乳液聚合法合成了表面带负电荷、粒径为360nm的单分散聚苯乙烯(PSt)种子乳液,并以EtOH/H2O混合物为分散介质,利用γ-氨丙基三乙氧基硅烷(KH-550)在25℃下对PSt微球表面进行改性,得到了表面硅烷化并带有正电荷的改性PSt种子乳液,然后在碱性条件下加入原硅酸乙酯(TEOS)使其和微球进行共水解与共缩聚,制备出了核壳结构PSt/SiO2复合微球,并利用电镜对复合微球的结构形态进行了表征.研究表明,PSt种子乳液改性时体系的zeta电位随着KH-550用量的增加而升高,当KH-550用量为PSt种子重量的1/3时,体系的zeta电位从原来的-34.5mV升高到了38mV,达到对PSt微球表面改性的最佳值;在制备PSt/SiO2复合微球时,TEOS水解缩聚形成的SiO2包覆到改性微球上的量随着反应时间的延长而增加,反应24h时达到97.9%的最大值;随介质中水含量的增加,吸附到复合微球表面上的SiO2纳米颗粒逐渐减少,复合微球表面逐渐变得光滑,当EtOH/H2O质量比降低到60/28.5时,得到结构均一、壳层厚度为35nm的核壳结构PSt/SiO2复合微球。     

Close-packed colloidal crystalline arrays composed of silica spheres coated with titania

Titania coated monodisperse silica spheres have been synthesized and fabricated as a close-packed colloidal crystalline array. We have demonstrated that the coated colloidal sphere can be used to control the peak position of the optical stop band through variation of the coating thickness. The titania coated silica spheres were prepared by the layer-by-layer assembly coating process, which reciprocally laminates the cationic polyelectrolyte and the anionic titania nanosheets on a monodisperse silica spheres, and were sintered to change the titania nanosheets to anatase. The Bragg diffraction peak of the colloidal crystalline array shifted to the long wavelength region with an increase of thickness of the titania layer. Angle-resolved reflection spectra measurements clarified that the red shift was caused by increasing of the refractive index with increase of the thickness of the layer. The current work suggests new possibilities for the creation of advanced colloidal crystalline arrays with tunable optical properties from tailored colloidal spheres.     

Ion transport in sulfonated nanoporous colloidal films

The surface of self-assembled nanoporous silica colloidal crystalline films comprised of 184-nm-diameter silica spheres has been sulfonated using 1,3-propanesultone. The transport of ions through the sulfonated films has been studied using cyclic voltammetry in water as a function of ion charge, pH, and solution ionic strength. We found that the flux of anions through the sulfonated colloidal films is reduced, while the flux of cations is increased, compared to the unmodified colloidal films. This behavior is pH-dependent and is due to electrostatic repulsion/attraction that can be modulated by changing the ionic strength of the contacting solution.     

Silica Films Containing Ordered Pores Prepared by Dip Coating of Silica Nanoparticles and Polystyrene Beads Colloidal Mixture

Silica films containing three dimensionally (3D) ordered pores were prepared by a simple dip coating method. A colloidal sol containing silica particles in the nanometer size range and a polystyrene latex (PSL) colloidal sol containing particles of tens of nanometers to one micrometer in size were used as precursors. The pore periodicity, which in turn produces the dielectric periodicity, can be easily altered by changing the size of the PSL beads. Films having a high surface smoothness were obtained by using small silica particles, large PSL particles, and a low withdrawal speed in the dip-coating. When the films were irradiated with a white light source, the reflective spectrum was changed by varying the incident angle, indicating its possible use as a monochromator. The change in the reflective spectrum was explained using effective medium approximation combined with a simple Bragg reflection equation.     

Effects of liquid bridge between colloidal spheres and evaporation temperature on fabrication of colloidal multilayers

For the application of colloidal crystal films as "photonic band gap" materials, their domain size and thickness are significant. The substrate withdrawing speed, the colloidal suspension volume fraction, and the colloidal suspension temperature have been studied for the domain size and thickness controls of colloidal crystals in this study. Stable dispersions of monodispersed polystyrene spheres with a diameter of 245 nm were synthesized according to a general emulsion polymerization for colloidal crystal films. By experimental results and the theoretical relationship between the number of layers and other parameters, we could know that the water bridge between colloidal spheres (which is formed by capillary force) influences the number of colloidal crystal layers significantly.     

钛酸四丁酯水解制备聚苯乙烯/二氧化钛核壳粒子及空心二氧化钛微球

通过无皂乳液聚合方法制备了阳离子型及阴离子型聚苯乙烯(PSt)乳胶粒,并对后者用γ-氨丙基三乙氧基硅烷(KH550)进行了表面改性制得了乳胶粒表面载正电荷的乳液.在乙醇与水的混合溶剂中,分别使用以上3种PSt乳胶粒为核加入钛酸四丁酯制备了核壳型PSt/TiO2复合粒子.结果显示,仅在使用经KH550改性的阴离子PSt乳...