Surface activity and collective behaviour of colloidally stable Janus-like particles at the air-water interface

Tuning the rheology and microstructure of particle-laden fluid interfaces with Janus particles

HYPOTHESIS

Particle-laden fluid interfaces are the central component of many natural and engineering systems. Understanding the mechanical properties and improving the stability of such interfaces are of great practical importance. Janus particles, a special class of heterogeneous colloids, might be used as an effective surface-active agent to control the assembly and interfacial rheology of particle-laden fluid interfaces.

EXPERIMENTS

Using a custom-built interfacial stress rheometer, we explore the effect of Janus particle additives on the interfacial rheology and microscopic structure of particle-laden fluid interfaces.

FINDINGS

We find that the addition of a small amount of platinum-polystyrene (Pt-PS) Janus particles within a monolayer of PS colloids (1:40 number ratio) can lead to more than an order-of-magnitude increase in surface moduli with enhanced elasticity, which improves the stability of the interface. This drastic change in interfacial rheology is associated with the formation of local particle clusters surrounding each Janus particle. We further explain the origin of local particle clusters by considering the interparticle interactions at the interface. Our experiments reveal the effect of local particle structures on the macroscopic rheological behaviors of particle monolayers and demonstrate a new way to tune the microstructure and mechanical properties of particle-laden fluid interfaces.

Janus Particles at Fluid Interfaces: Stability and Interfacial Rheology

The use of the Janus motif in colloidal particles, i.e., anisotropic surface properties on opposite faces, has gained significant attention in the bottom-up assembly of novel functional structures, design of active nanomotors, biological sensing and imaging, and polymer blend compatibilization. This review is focused on the behavior of Janus particles in interfacial systems, such as particle-stabilized (i.e., Pickering) emulsions and foams, where stabilization is achieved through the binding of particles to fluid interfaces. In many such applications, the interface could be subjected to deformations, producing compression and shear stresses. Besides the physicochemical properties of the particle, their behavior under flow will also impact the performance of the resulting system. This review article provides a synopsis of interfacial stability and rheology in particle-laden interfaces to highlight the role of the Janus motif, and how particle anisotropy affects interfacial mechanics.

Equilibrium Orientation and Adsorption of an Ellipsoidal Janus Particle at a Fluid–Fluid Interface

We investigate the equilibrium orientation and adsorption process of a single, ellipsoidal Janus particle at a fluid–fluid interface. The particle surface comprises equally sized parts that are hydrophobic or hydrophilic. We present free energy models to predict the equilibrium orientation and compare the theoretical predictions with lattice Boltzmann simulations. We find that the deformation of the fluid interface strongly influences the equilibrium orientation of the Janus ellipsoid. The adsorption process of the Janus ellipsoid can lead to different final orientations determined by the interplay of particle aspect ratio and particle wettablity contrast.

Solution self-assembly of plasmonic Janus nanoparticles

Janus nanoparticles bearing two different properties on a single particle are amenable to self-assembly into higher-order structures via their directional interaction. We show that gold/silica Janus nanoparticles self-assemble in solution into clusters resembling colloidal micelles upon addition of a hydrophobic thiol which provides them with a surface active amphiphilic character. As the nanoparticles spontaneously assemble, the color of the solution evolves due to the coupling of the surface plasmons. Time resolved spectrophotometry in the visible and near-infrared ranges coupled to simulations were used to probe the assembly process. A singular value decomposition analysis reveals the presence of dimers as transient species. The structure of the clusters was probed using small angle X-ray revealing that the Janus nanoparticles assemble into clusters containing a few particles.

Interfacial Activity of Gold Nanoparticles Coated with a Polymeric Patchy Shell and the Role of Spreading Agents

Gold patchy nanoparticles (PPs) were prepared under surfactant-free conditions by functionalization with a binary ligand mixture of polystyrene and poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG) as hydrophobic and hydrophilic ligands, respectively. The interfacial activity of PPs was compared to that of homogeneous hydrophilic nanoparticles (HPs), fully functionalized with PEG, by means of pendant drop tensiometry at water/air and water/decane interfaces. We compared interfacial activities in three different spreading agents: water, water/chloroform, and pure chloroform. We found that the interfacial activity of PPs was close to zero (∼2 mN/m) when the spreading agent was water and increased to ∼14 mN/m when the spreading agent was water/chloroform. When the nanoparticles were deposited with pure chloroform, the interfacial activity reached up to 60 mN/m by compression. In all cases, PPs exhibited higher interfacial activity than HPs, which were not interfacially active, regardless of the spreading agent. The interfacial activity at the water/decane interface was found to be significantly lower than that at the water/air interface because PPs aggregate in decane. Interfacial dilatational rheology showed that PPs form a stronger elastic shell at the pendant drop interface, compared to HPs. The significantly high interfacial activity obtained with PPs in this study highlights the importance of the polymeric patchy shell and the spreading agent.

Surface activity of Janus particles adsorbed at fluid-fluid interfaces: Theoretical and experimental aspects

Since de Gennes coined in 1992 the term Janus particle (JP), there has been a continued effort to develop this field. The purpose of this review is to present the most relevant theoretical and experimental results obtained so far on the surface activity of amphiphilic JPs at fluid interfaces. The surface activity of JPs at fluid-fluid interfaces can be experimentally determined using two different methods: the classical Langmuir balance or the pendant drop tensiometry. The second method requires much less amount of sample than the first one, but it has also some experimental limitations. In all cases collected here the JPs exhibited a higher surface or interfacial activity than the corresponding homogeneous particles. This reveals the significant advantage of JPs for the stabilization of emulsions and foams.

Adsorption Behavior of Low-Concentration Imidazolium-Based Ionic Liquid Surfactant on Silica Nanoparticles

The adsorption behavior of imidazolium-based ionic liquid surfactant ([C12mim]Br) on silica nanoparticles (NPs) has been studied with turbidity, isothermal titration microcalorimetry, fluorescence spectroscopy, and dynamic light scattering (DLS) measurements. Both the electrostatic attraction and the hydrogen bonding interaction between silica NP and [C12mim]Br play crucial roles during [C12mim]Br monomers binding to silica NPs at low surfactant concentration, and the hydrophobic effect leads to formation of micelle-like aggregates on silica NP surfaces with the further increase of surfactant concentration. Furthermore, it is found that sodium halide salts favor the adsorption of [C12mim]Br on silica NP surfaces by decreasing the electrostatic repulsions. Anions with more hydrophobicity and the ability to form hydrogen bonding have more pronounced effect. Compared with DTAB, [C12mim]Br has much stronger binding ability with silica NPs at pH 7.0. More interestingly, [C12mim]Br can still form micelle-like aggregates on silica NP surfaces, but DTAB cannot at pH 2.0. The hydrogen bonding between the imidazolium ring and silica NPs is the principal contributor to these observations. Our results will contribute to the elucidation of silica NP/cationic surfactant interaction from molecular scale and the widely applications of silica NP/surfactant systems in practice.

Polymeric Janus nanoparticles from triblock terpolymer micellar dimers

Well-defined polymeric Janus nanoparticles have been synthesized by a novel method of combining self-assembly of simple ABC linear triblock terpolymers into nanostructured dimers and crosslinking of the conjunction between the opposite hemispheres.

Janus nanoparticles as versatile phase-transfer reagents

Janus nanoparticles were prepared by interfacial ligand-exchange reactions of hexanethiolate-protected gold (AuC6) nanoparticles with 3-mercapto-1,2-propanediol (MPD) at the air|water interface. As nanoscale analogues to conventional amphiphilic molecules, the resulting Janus nanoparticles were found to form oil-in-water micelle-like or water-in-oil reverse micelle-like superparticulate structures depending on the solvent media. These unique characteristics were exploited for the effective transfer of diverse guest nanoparticles between organic and water phases. The transfer of hydrophobic nanoparticles from organic to water media or water-soluble nanoparticles to the organic phase was evidenced by transmission electron microscopy, dynamic light scattering, UV-vis, and photoluminescence measurements. In particular, line scans based on energy-dispersive X-ray analysis showed that the vesiclelike structures consisted of multiple layers of Janus nanoparticles which encapsulated the guest nanoparticles in the cores. The results highlight the unique effectiveness of using Janus nanoparticles in the formation of functional nanocomposites.