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

Janus plasmonic–magnetic gold–iron oxide nanoparticles as contrast agents for multimodal imaging

“…to create emulsified nanoreactors, filtering nanomembranes, or blockcopolymers with optical and electronic properties. 31,32 Other uses include: antireflecting surfaces, electronic displays, nanoswimmers, or as building blocks for more complex molecular colloids and supracrystals. [33][34][35][36] They offer extraordinary potential in biomedicine, as they c an mimic natural biomolecules, have directed interactions with cell membranes, or offer regions with high concentrations of biofunctional molecules, while keeping multiple functionalities.…”

Self-stratification of amphiphilic Janus particles at coating surfaces

“…[46][47][48][49] To provide more theoretical support to our observation, we developed a preliminary model that combines the cross interaction between particles and surface adsorption energy, incorporating the surface adsorption energy to account for analysing the active self-stratification of Janus particles. The model adopts the adsorption energy of a particle using characteristic energy scale of the thermal motion at room temperature, which is the product of the Boltzmann constant k B and the absolute temperature T = 298 K. Theoretical calculation based on an ideal particle estimates the adsorption energy of Janus particles can be several orders of magnitude larger than k B T. 50,51 However, there is no direct experimental measurement on the adsorption energy of Janus particles used in this work. Many factors including the imperfection of Janus boundary, surface roughness and polymer chemistry are known to influence the adsorption energy.…”

Janus nanoparticles inside polymeric materials: interfacial arrangement toward functional hybrid materials

“…113 Further extensive theoretical simulations and experimental observations indicate that the interfacial activity of the Janus NPs can vary depending on several parameters, including the shape, size, morphology, and distribution of the spatial domains, and that the Janus NPs show an enhanced interfacial activity compared to the corresponding homogeneous particles, regardless of the synthesis and interfacial activity characterization methods. [114][115][116][117][118][119][120][121][122][123][124][125][126][127][128] In analogy to the emulsification of fluid mixtures, Janus NPs are also expected to strongly attach to the interface inside polymer matrices, either in polymer blends or in block copolymers, which will be discussed in sections 3 and 4, respectively. A thorough study of the interfacial behavior of Janus NPs at the fluid-fluid interface is not only essential for further practical application of Janus NPs as solid stabilizers, but also helpful for fundamentally understanding how Janus NPs interact with polymeric interfaces, even though polymer interfaces cannot be simply understood as a fluid-fluid interface.…”