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Engineering Surface Patterning of Colloidal Rings through Plateau–Rayleigh Instability
Author(s) -
Luo Zhang,
Zhou Jiajia,
Liu Bing
Publication year - 2019
Publication title -
angewandte chemie
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 1521-3757
pISSN - 0044-8249
DOI - 10.1002/ange.201910695
Subject(s) - instability , colloid , chemical physics , brownian dynamics , polystyrene , dispersity , materials science , polymer , brownian motion , polymerization , chemical engineering , nanotechnology , chemistry , polymer chemistry , composite material , physics , mechanics , quantum mechanics , engineering
Plateau–Rayleigh (P‐R) instability occurring on Brownian colloidal particles is presented. This instability can be used for the surface patterning of Brownian colloidal rings. This idea was realized by employing polystyrene(PS)/SiO 2 core/shell rings, for which PS layer was selectively grown onto the interior surface of SiO 2 rings. The P‐R instability was initiated in the ring's dispersion by adding a good solvent of PS. By using both experiments and theory, it is shown that the number of patches is tunable and that it is linearly related to a function of two variables, namely, solvent quantity and contact angle. In particular, one‐patch Janus rings and patchy disks were also synthesized at high yields. The patch size of all particles is tunable by step‐by‐step polymerization and the patches can be functionalized, for example by ATRP grafting with pH‐sensitive polymers. This approach can be adapted for the synthesis of other patchy colloids with designated complexity.