2006/11/04 by Kang Chen, Chen, Kang, Yu‐qiang Ma +2
Materials Science · Physics and Astronomy · #FOS: Physical sciences #Pickering emulsions and particle stabilization #Polymer Surface Interaction Studies #Soft Condensed Matter (cond-mat.soft) #cond-mat.soft
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.cond-mat/0611105
arxiv created 2006/11/04 · openalex publication_date 2006/11/04 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01 · openalex created_date 2016/06/24 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
We demonstrate a novel route of spatially organizing the colloid arrangements on the polymer-grafted substrate by use of self-consistent field and density functional theories. We find that grafting of polymers onto a substrate can effectively control spatial dispersions of deposited colloids as a result of the balance between colloidal settling force and entropically elastic force of brushes, and colloids can form unexpected ordered structures on a grafting substrate. The depositing process of colloidal particles onto the elastic "soft" substrate includes two steps: brush-mediated one-dimensional arrangement of colloidal crystals and controlled layer-by-layer growth driven entropically by non-adsorbing polymer solvent with increasing the particles. The result indicates a possibility for the production of highly ordered and defect-free structures by simply using the grafted substrate instead of periodically patterned templates, under appropriate selection of colloidal size, effective depositing potential, and brush coverage density.