Packing patterns of silica nanoparticles on surfaces of armored polystyrene latex particles

Sara Fortuna (Author), Catheline A. L. Colard (Author), Alessandro Troisi (Author), Stefan Antonius Franciscus Bon (Author)

Abstract

Fascinating packing patterns of identical spherical and discotic objects on curved surfaces occur readily in nature and science. Examples include C60 fullerenes,(1, 2)13-atom cuboctahedral metal clusters,(3) and S-layer proteins on outer cell membranes.(4) Numerous situations with surface-arranged objects of variable size also exist, such as the lenses on insect eyes, biomineralized shells on coccolithophorids,(5) and solid-stabilized emulsion droplets(6) and bubbles.(7) The influence of size variations on these packing patterns, however, is studied sparsely. Here we investigate the packing of nanosized silica particles on the surface of polystyrene latex particles fabricated by Pickering miniemulsion polymerization of submicrometer-sized armored monomer droplets. We are able to rationalize the experimental morphology and the nearest-neighbor distribution with the help of Monte Carlo simulations. We show that broadening of the nanoparticle size distribution has pronounced effects on the self-assembled equilibrium packing structures, with original 12-point dislocations or grain-boundary scars gradually fading out.

Keywords

packing patterns;silica;Monte Carlo simulations;order;disorder;transition;armored particles;nanoparticles;Pickering emulsion;

Data

Language:	English
Year of publishing:	2009
Typology:	1.01 - Original Scientific Article
Organization:	UNG - University of Nova Gorica
UDC:	54
COBISS:	4529915
ISSN:	0743-7463
Views:	4011
Downloads:	0
Average score:	0 (0 votes)
Metadata:

Other data

URN:	URN:SI:UNG
Type (COBISS):	Not categorized
Pages:	str. 12399-12403
Volume:	ǂVol. ǂ25
Issue:	ǂno. ǂ21
Chronology:	2009
DOI:	10.1021/la9010289
ID:	9175936