The Interfacial Assembly of Polyoxometalate Nanoparticle Surfactants.

Huang, Caili; Chai, Yu; Jiang, Yufeng; Forth, Joe; Ashby, Paul D; Arras, Matthias M L; Hong, Kunlun; Smith, Gregory S et al. · Nano Lett · 2018

basic_science · Level V

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Abstract

Polyoxometalates (POMs) using {Mo<sub>72</sub>V<sub>30</sub>} as an example, dissolved in water, can interact with amine-terminated polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS-NH<sub>2</sub>) dissolved in toluene at the water/toluene interface to form POM-surfactants that significantly lower the interfacial tension and can be used to stabilize liquids via interfacial elasticity. The jamming of the POM-surfactants at the water/oil interface with consequent wrinkling occurs with a decrease in the interfacial area. The packing density of the POM-surfactants at the interface can be tuned by varying the strength of screening with the addition of cations with differing hydrated radii.