corner
corner
APS » Journals » Phys. Rev. B » Volume 73 » Issue 12
< Previous Article | Next Article >

Phys. Rev. B 73, 125412 (2006) [9 pages]

Solvent mediated assembly of nanoparticles confined in mesoporous alumina

Download: PDF (1,081 kB) Buy this article Export: BibTeX or EndNote (RIS)

Kyle J. Alvine1,*, Diego Pontoni1, Oleg G. Shpyrko1,2, Peter S. Pershan1,3, David J. Cookson4, Kyusoon Shin5,†, Thomas P. Russell5, Markus Brunnbauer6, Francesco Stellacci6, and Oleg Gang7
1Division of Engineering and Applied Sciences, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02138, USA
2Center for Nanoscale Materials, Argonne National Laboratory, Argonne, Illinois 60439, USA
3Department of Physics, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02138, USA
4Australian Synchrotron Research Program, Building 434, Argonne National Laboratory, Argonne, Illinois 60439, USA
5Department of Polymer Science and Engineering, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, Massachusetts 01003, USA
6Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139, USA
7Center for Functional Nanomaterials, Brookhaven National Lab, Upton, New York 11973, USA

Received 20 December 2005; revised 24 January 2006; published 17 March 2006

The controlled self-assembly of thiol stabilized gold nanocrystals in a mediating solvent and confined within mesoporous alumina was probed in situ with small angle x-ray scattering. The evolution of the self-assembly process was controlled reversibly via regulated changes in the amount of solvent condensed from an undersaturated vapor. Analysis indicated that the nanoparticles self-assembled into cylindrical monolayers within the porous template. Nanoparticle nearest-neighbor separation within the monolayer increased and the ordering decreased with the controlled addition of solvent. The process was reversible with the removal of solvent. Isotropic clusters of nanoparticles were also observed to form temporarily during desorption of the liquid solvent and disappeared upon complete removal of liquid. Measurements of the absorption and desorption of the solvent showed strong hysteresis upon thermal cycling. In addition, the capillary filling transition for the solvent in the nanoparticle-doped pores was shifted to larger chemical potential, relative to the liquid/vapor coexistence, by a factor of 4 as compared to the expected value for the same system without nanoparticles.

© 2006 The American Physical Society

URL:
http://link.aps.org/doi/10.1103/PhysRevB.73.125412
DOI:
10.1103/PhysRevB.73.125412
PACS:
61.46.Df, 68.08.Bc, 61.10.Eq

*Electronic address: alvine@fas.harvard.edu

†Current address: School of Chemical and Biological Engineering, Seoul National University, Seoul, South Korea.

 
< Previous Article | Next Article >