Tiny aquariums put nanoparticle self-assembly on display

said braka 8:05 AM
Self-assembling colloidal  are one of the

things that make stuff like LED displays, solar cells and batteries work. Researchers study these nanoparticles with still images using high-powered electron microscopes, but because colloidal nanoparticles interact through motions in liquids, traditional electron microscopy-based observation methods cannot capture the interactions that occur when these nanoparticles self-assemble, said Qian Chen, a professor of materials science and engineering and co-author of a new study.
"The colloid self-assembly process has always been a bit of a black box," Chen said. "The particles behave like atoms and molecules, which allows us to use classical chemistry and physics theories to model their behavior. This new method, called liquid-phase transmission electron microscopy, allows us to see exactly what is happening."
The team's new method, published in Nature Communications, also shows that the shape of nanoparticles can control the types of materials formed.


Read more at: https://phys.org/news/2017-10-tiny-aquariums-nanoparticle-self-assembly.html#jCp