Department of Organic Chemistry, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot, Israel.
Department of Innovative Technologies, University of Applied Sciences and Arts of Southern Switzerland, Lugano-Viganello, Switzerland.
Nat Chem. 2021 Oct;13(10):940-949. doi: 10.1038/s41557-021-00752-9. Epub 2021 Sep 6.
Coulombic interactions can be used to assemble charged nanoparticles into higher-order structures, but the process requires oppositely charged partners that are similarly sized. The ability to mediate the assembly of such charged nanoparticles using structurally simple small molecules would greatly facilitate the fabrication of nanostructured materials and harnessing their applications in catalysis, sensing and photonics. Here we show that small molecules with as few as three electric charges can effectively induce attractive interactions between oppositely charged nanoparticles in water. These interactions can guide the assembly of charged nanoparticles into colloidal crystals of a quality previously only thought to result from their co-crystallization with oppositely charged nanoparticles of a similar size. Transient nanoparticle assemblies can be generated using positively charged nanoparticles and multiply charged anions that are enzymatically hydrolysed into mono- and/or dianions. Our findings demonstrate an approach for the facile fabrication, manipulation and further investigation of static and dynamic nanostructured materials in aqueous environments.
库仑相互作用可用于将带电纳米粒子组装成更高阶的结构，但该过程需要大小相似的带相反电荷的伴侣。如果能够使用结构简单的小分子来介导这种带电纳米粒子的组装，将极大地促进纳米结构材料的制造，并利用它们在催化、传感和光子学中的应用。在这里，我们表明，只有三个电荷的小分子可以有效地在水中诱导带相反电荷的纳米粒子之间的吸引力相互作用。这些相互作用可以指导带电纳米粒子组装成胶体晶体，其质量以前仅认为是与大小相似的带相反电荷的纳米粒子共结晶的结果。使用带正电荷的纳米粒子和经酶水解成单电荷和/或双电荷的多电荷阴离子可以生成瞬态纳米粒子组装体。我们的发现展示了一种在水相环境中简便地制造、操纵和进一步研究静态和动态纳米结构材料的方法。
