Abstracts Book - IMRC 2018

• SD5-O019 Invited Talk
NANOPARTICLE SELF-ASSEMBLY BY SOLVENT EVAPORATION,
VAN DER WAALS INTERACTION, AND STERIC HINDRANCE
Jaewon Lee 1 , Elias Nakouzi 1 , Jaehun Chun 1 , Dongsheng Li 1
1 Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, Physical and Computational Sciences Directorate,
United States.
The self-assembly of nanoparticles (NPs) into superlattice structures attracts
great attention due to their unique optical, thermoelectric, magnetic, energy
storage and catalytic properties. Understanding of and mechanisms of particle
assembly and interaction between active species can help to establish
conditions to control the assembly process and superlattice structure, which are
closely tied to the physical and chemical properties. However, little is known
about the driving forces and controlling factors during the process of particle
self-assembly. In this work, we analyzed dynamic information of the process and
investigated the Van der Waals force, Brownian force, and the hydrodynamic
force, based on measured particle positions and velocities by directly observing
the process of 2-dimensional self-assembly of nanoparticles and tracking
individual particles as a function of time via in situ TEM. In addition, we studied
the steric hindrance factor between particles due to the polymer attached to the
particle surface. We estimated the most stable conditions based on our
calculations and understanding of all process during the nanoparticle selfassembly
process.
Acknowledgment:
The research was supported by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Office of
Science, Office of Basic Energy Sciences (BES) Early Career Research program
under Award #67037 and by the MS3 (Materials Synthesis and Simulation Across
Scales) Initiative, a Laboratory Directed Research and Development Program at
PNNL.Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) is a multiprogram national
laboratory operated for the DOE by Battelle under Contract No. DE-AC05-
76RL01830.
Keywords: Self-assembly, superlattice, van der Waals
Presenting authors email: dongsheng.li2@pnnl.gov