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Spontaneous organization of supracolloids into three-dimensional structured materials

Abstract

Periodic nano- or microscale structures are used to control light, energy and mass transportation. Colloidal organization is the most versatile method used to control nano- and microscale order, and employs either the enthalpy-driven self-assembly of particles at a low concentration or the entropy-driven packing of particles at a high concentration. Nonetheless, it cannot yet provide the spontaneous three-dimensional organization of multicomponent particles at a high concentration. Here we combined these two concepts into a single strategy to achieve hierarchical multicomponent materials. We tuned the electrostatic attraction between polymer and silica nanoparticles to create dynamic supracolloids whose components, on drying, reorganize by entropy into three-dimensional structured materials. Cryogenic electron tomography reveals the kinetic pathways, whereas Monte Carlo simulations combined with a kinetic model provide design rules to form the supracolloids and control the kinetic pathways. This approach may be useful to fabricate hierarchical hybrid materials for distinct technological applications.

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Fig. 1: Synthesis and self-assembly of the supracolloids.
Fig. 2: Electron microscopy analysis of the macroscopic materials.
Fig. 3: Analysis of the supracolloid 3D organization by cryoET.
Fig. 4: Modelling and optimization of the colloidal organization process.

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Data availability

The data that support the findings of this study are available within the article and Supplementary Information files and from the corresponding authors upon reasonable request (see ‘Author contributions’ for the specific datasets). Source data are provided with this paper.

Code availability

Code for the analysis of the tomographic reconstructions is available from M.-A.M. upon request. Code for the Monte Carlo simulations is available from M.D. upon request. Code for the population balance modelling is available from A.F.R. upon request.

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Acknowledgements

We thank I. Schreur-Piet (Eindhoven University of Technology) for her help with the FIB/SEM TEM lamella sample preparation and P. Bomans (Eindhoven University of Technology) for his support with the CryoTEM. E.D.E. and M.C. were supported by the EU H2020 Marie Sklodowska-Curie Action project ‘MULTIMAT’. J.P.P. and M.-A.M. were supported by the 4TU High-Tech Materials research programme ‘New Horizons in Designer Materials’.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Contributions

N.S., H.F., M.-A.M., E.D.E. and J.P.P. conceived and designed the experiments. M.-A.M. and E.D.E. carried out the supracolloid assembly experiments. M.-A.M. carried out the cryoTEM and cryoET analysis. E.D.E. carried out the SEM analyses and FIB experiments. M.D. supervised the simulation study and M.C. carried out the computer simulations. S.R. carried out the silica functionalization and some of the drying experiments. H.F. supervised the data analysis and M.-A.M., E.D.E., M.G. and A.D.A.K. carried out the data analysis. M.M.J.v.R. synthesized the SNPs. A.F.R. created the kinetic model. N.A.J.M.S., G.d.W., H.F. and J.P.P. supervised the project. J.P.P. wrote the manuscript and M.-A.M., E.D.E. and G.d.W. wrote the Supplementary Information, with contributions from all the authors. All the authors discussed the results and commented on the manuscript.

Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Nico Sommerdijk, Heiner Friedrich or Joseph P. Patterson.

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Competing interests

The authors declare no competing interests.

Additional information

Peer review information Nature Materials thanks Dganit Danino, Oleg Gang and the other, anonymous, reviewer(s) for their contribution to the peer review of this work.

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Supplementary information

Supplementary Information

Supplementary methods, discussion, Figs. 1–20 and Tables 1–4.

Supplementary Video 1

Electron tomography of the internal structure of the SNP/PSL hybrid material.

Supplementary Video 2

Simulation of the SNP/PSL supracolloid formation.

Supplementary Video 3

Electron tomography of the supracolloids.

Supplementary Video 4

Electron tomography of a part of the clustered supracolloids.

Supplementary Video 5

Electron tomography of a cluster of supracolloids.

Supplementary Video 6

Electron tomography of repelling supracolloids in high concentration.

Supplementary Video 7

Overview image reconstruction of the repelling supracolloids.

Source data

Source Data Fig. 1

Zeta potential measurements and SNP particles per PSL graph.

Source Data Fig. 2

Unprocessed source SEM images, FFT results, and Avizo reconstructions of end material.

Source Data Fig. 3

XYZ coordinates of the SNPs in supracolloids extracted from cryoET.

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Moradi, MA., Eren, E.D., Chiappini, M. et al. Spontaneous organization of supracolloids into three-dimensional structured materials. Nat. Mater. 20, 541–547 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41563-020-00900-5

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