2024/10/07 by Binay P. Nayak, Nayak, Binay P., James Ethan Batey +13 · 1 citation
Engineering · #Electrophoretic Deposition in Materials Science #FOS: Physical sciences #Soft Condensed Matter (cond-mat.soft)
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.2410.05456
openalex publication_date 2024/10/07 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/01
Employing grazing-incidence small-angle X-ray scattering (GISAXS) and X-ray reflectivity (XRR), we demonstrate that films composed of polyethylene glycol (PEG)-grafted silver nanoparticles (AgNP) and gold nanoparticles (AuNP), as well as their binary mixtures, form highly stable hexagonal structures at the vapor-liquid interface. These nanoparticles exhibit remarkable stability under varying environmental conditions, including changes in pH, mixing concentration, and PEG chain length. Short-chain PEG grafting produces dense, well-ordered films, while longer chains produce more complex, less dense quasi-bilayer structures. AuNPs exhibit higher grafting densities than AgNPs, leading to more ordered in-plane arrangements. In binary mixtures, AuNPs dominate the population at the surface, while AgNPs integrate into the system, expanding the lattice without forming a distinct binary superstructure. These results offer valuable insights into the structural behavior of PEG-grafted nanoparticles and provide a foundation for optimizing binary nanoparticle assemblies for advanced nanotechnology applications.