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significantly affect the O/W microemulsion stability. With the
evaporation of the organic solvent in microemulsion droplets, the
interactions between nanocrystal building blocks gradually increase
and result in superparticles with a supercrystalline structure. These
superparticles are stabilized in the water phase by surfactants
through hydrophobic interactions. In this case, the functionalization
of the superparticle surface is different from that of their building
blocks inside the superparticles. This unique feature enables uniform
interparticle interaction fields between nanocrystal building blocks
throughout an entire superparticle, and it plays a critical role in the
formation of supercrystalline colloidal superparticles.
6,11
14,16
19
This
microemulsion-template synthesis is a general approach for making
superparticles from monodispersed nanocrystals of any chemical
composition. In principle, superparticle size in this synthesis can
be controlled by varying the amount of nanocrystals, surfactants,
organic solvent, and water. However, because of the complexity of
the phase diagram of the two-phase emulsion system,
27
it is very
challenging to achieve precise control of superparticle sizes and
their size distributions.
Figure 13.8
Schematic of microemulsion-template synthesis. From Ref.
[27] with permission.
13.4.2 Controlled Induction of Solvophobic Interactions
To achieve a better control of superparticle formation, we have
developed a synthetic approach through CIS between nanocrystal
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