Colloidal crystals properties

Comprehension of the interactions among microstructures composed of tethered chains is central to the understanding of many of their important properties. Their ability to impart stability against flocculation to suspensions of colloidal particles [52, 124, 125] or to induce repulsions that lead to colloidal crystallization [126] are examples of practical properties arising from interactions among tethered chains many more are conceivable but not yet realized, such as effects on adhesion, entanglement or on the assembly of new block copolymer microstructures. We will be rather brief in our treatment of interactions between tethered chains since a comprehensive review has been published recently of direct force measurements on interacting layers of tethered chains [127]. 

Chapter 8 presents evidence on how the physical properties of colloidal crystals organized by self-assembly in two-dimensional and three-dimensional superlattices differ from those of the free nanoparticles in dispersion. 

As an example of composite core/shell submicron particles, we made colloidal spheres with a polystyrene core and a silica shell. The polar vapors preferentially affect the silica shell of the composite nanospheres by sorbing into the mesoscale pores of the shell surface. This vapor sorption follows two mechanisms physical adsorption and capillary condensation of condensable vapors17. Similar vapor adsorption mechanisms have been observed in porous silicon20 and colloidal crystal films fabricated from silica submicron particles32, however, with lack of selectivity in vapor response. The nonpolar vapors preferentially affect the properties of the polystyrene core. Sorption of vapors of good solvents for a glassy polymer leads to the increase in polymer free volume and polymer plasticization32. 

Any study of colloidal crystals requires the preparation of monodisperse colloidal particles that are uniform in size, shape, composition, and surface properties. Monodisperse spherical colloids of various sizes, composition, and surface properties have been prepared via numerous synthetic strategies [67]. However, the direct preparation of crystal phases from spherical particles usually leads to a rather limited set of close-packed structures (hexagonal close packed, face-centered cubic, or body-centered cubic structures). Relatively few studies exist on the preparation of monodisperse nonspherical colloids. In general, direct synthetic methods are restricted to particles with simple shapes such as rods, spheroids, or plates [68]. An alternative route for the preparation of uniform particles with a more complex structure might consist of the formation of discrete uniform aggregates of self-organized spherical particles. The use of colloidal clusters with a given number of particles, with controlled shape and dimension, could lead to colloidal crystals with unusual symmetries [69]. 

Keywords wrinkling Thin-film Elastomeric polymer Polydimethylsiloxane Patterns Deformation Surfaces Self-assembly Polyelectrolyte multilayer films Thin-films Polymer brushes Colloidal crystallization Mechanical-properties Assembled monolayers Buckling instability Elastomeric polymer Tobacco-mosaic-virus Soft lithography Arrays... 

The method relies on the properties of monodispersed latex/silica spheres to assemble, through colloidal interactions, into a well-ordered, face-centered-cubic colloidal crystal upon centrifugation, sedimentation, electrophoresis, oscillatory shear or pressing in the form of pellets. Following pre-assembly of the colloidal crystal template, the precursor is infiltrated into the empty octahedral and tetrahedral interstitial sites that exist between the spheres. After conversion of the precursor to the desired material inside the voids, the template is removed leaving... 

Kuai, S., Zhang, Y., Truong, V. et al.. Improvement of optical properties of silica colloidal crystals by sintering, Appl. Phys. A, 74, 89, 2002. 

In another demonstration, we found that the small aggregates formed via the TASA process were immediately useful as templates to generate three-dimensional lattices of spherical colloids with symmetries or orientations other than those commonly observed for the spherical systems on flat substrates." For example, when 1% of the sqnare-shaped, tetramer aggregates was mixed with spherical colloids, they were able to direct the spherical colloids into an opaline lattice with its (100) planes oriented parallel to the surface of a flat substrate (Figure 11.1 IB). In this case, the three-dimensional opaline lattice tended to develop a symmetry similar to the added aggregates during the crystallization process. This ability to control the orientation of an opaline lattice provides another way to change the photonic properties of a colloidal crystal. 

Murray, C.A. and Grier, D.G., Colloidal crystals — solid particles suspended in fluid form ordered arrays with unusual and useful physical properties. Am. Set, 83, 238, 1995. 

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