Thin film

Liquid crystal bilayers (3.3nm)

AFM scan on Liquid Crystal precursor film

Amphiphilic molecules self-organisation (5.5nm)

Patterns and Pathways in Colloidal Nanoparticle Assemblies

Collaboration: E. Vaujour & P. Moriarty (School of Physics and Astronomy, University of Nottingham, UK)


		Observation of nanoparticles assemblie in real time

		Determination of patterns and pathways morphology


		Standard surf SiO2

		Optical Microscope with DIC mode

A drop of colloïdal solution of Gold nanoparticles (diameter 2nm), passivated by thiol molecules C8H17S (total diameter around 3nm) [Brust et al., J. Chem. Soc., Chem. Commun. (1994)]in toluene with a 0.1% excess of Thiol is deposited in the centre of a Teflon ring [Pauliac-Vaujour et al., J. Phys. Chem. C (2007)] on the Surf (pretreatment of the surface by O3). The solvent is evaporated at RT. The nanoparticle solution contains an excess of thiol molecules (0.1%), hence becoming significantly more viscous than a standard solution. All the liquid doesn’t evaporate immediately (thiol surfactants partially prevent solvent evaporation) and viscous fingering occurs in the vicinity of residual drops.
(Scale bar : 20µm)

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