TY - JOUR
T1 - Interplay between spherical confinement and particle shape on the self-assembly of rounded cubes
AU - Wang, Da
AU - Hermes, Michiel
AU - Kotni, Ramakrishna
AU - Wu, Yaoting
AU - Tasios, Nikos
AU - Liu, Yang
AU - De Nijs, Bart
AU - Van Der Wee, Ernest B.
AU - Murray, Christopher B.
AU - More Authors, null
PY - 2018
Y1 - 2018
N2 - Self-assembly of nanoparticles (NPs) inside drying emulsion droplets provides a general strategy for hierarchical structuring of matter at different length scales. The local orientation of neighboring crystalline NPs can be crucial to optimize for instance the optical and electronic properties of the self-assembled superstructures. By integrating experiments and computer simulations, we demonstrate that the orientational correlations of cubic NPs inside drying emulsion droplets are significantly determined by their flat faces. We analyze the rich interplay of positional and orientational order as the particle shape changes from a sharp cube to a rounded cube. Sharp cubes strongly align to form simple-cubic superstructures whereas rounded cubes assemble into icosahedral clusters with additionally strong local orientational correlations. This demonstrates that the interplay between packing, confinement and shape can be utilized to develop new materials with novel properties.
AB - Self-assembly of nanoparticles (NPs) inside drying emulsion droplets provides a general strategy for hierarchical structuring of matter at different length scales. The local orientation of neighboring crystalline NPs can be crucial to optimize for instance the optical and electronic properties of the self-assembled superstructures. By integrating experiments and computer simulations, we demonstrate that the orientational correlations of cubic NPs inside drying emulsion droplets are significantly determined by their flat faces. We analyze the rich interplay of positional and orientational order as the particle shape changes from a sharp cube to a rounded cube. Sharp cubes strongly align to form simple-cubic superstructures whereas rounded cubes assemble into icosahedral clusters with additionally strong local orientational correlations. This demonstrates that the interplay between packing, confinement and shape can be utilized to develop new materials with novel properties.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85048276110&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1038/s41467-018-04644-4
DO - 10.1038/s41467-018-04644-4
M3 - Article
C2 - 29884884
AN - SCOPUS:85048276110
SN - 2041-1723
VL - 9
JO - Nature Communications
JF - Nature Communications
IS - 1
M1 - 2228
ER -