Unprecedented stability of raspberry-like colloids
Accepted version
Peer-reviewed
Repository URI
Repository DOI
Change log
Authors
Abstract
Aqueous colloidal suspensions, both man-made and natural, are part of our everyday life. The applicability of colloidal suspensions, however, is highly limited by the range of conditions over which they are stable. Here, we report a novel type of highly monodisperse ‘raspberry’ colloids, which are prepared in a single-step synthesis that relies on simultaneous dispersion and emulsion polymerisation. The resulting raspberry colloids behave almost like hard spheres. In aqueous solutions such prepared raspberries show unprecedented stability against aggregation over large variations of added salt concentrations without addition of surfactants or other stabilisers. We present simple DLVO-calculations performed on raspberries and smooth colloids showing that this stability results from our raspberries’ unique morphology preventing salt-induced colloidal aggregation, which extends our understanding of colloidal stability against salting. Our calculations are supported by salting experiments using a variety of salts and differently sized colloids with varying ‘roughness’. Further, the raspberies’ stability facilitates the formation of superspheres and thin films in which the raspberry colloids self-assemble into hexagonally close-packed photonic crystals with exquisite reproducibility. Introduction The ability to disperse charged colloids in water is generally determined by the interplay between attractive van der Waals and
Description
Keywords
Journal Title
Conference Name
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Publisher DOI
Publisher URL
Sponsorship
European Research Council (639088)
European Commission Horizon 2020 (H2020) Marie Sk?odowska-Curie actions (701455)