Abstract
Effect of mixing dodecanethiol-capped Au nanoparticles (AuNPs) on the critical point of the liquid ordered (\(L_{\mathrm{o}}\)) to liquid disordered (\({\textit{L}}_{\mathrm {d}}\)) phase transition of myristic acid (MyA) Langmuir monolayer has been studied through quantitative evaluation of the two-dimensional patterns of AuNP clusters created through de-mixing and observed through Brewster angle microscopy. The critical temperature (\({\textit{T}}_{\mathrm {c}}\)), marked by the emergence of a Bethe lattice-like (BLL) pattern of ‘fingers’ and ‘arms’, was brought down from \(38^{\circ }\hbox {C}\) in pristine MyA monolayers to 28 and \(10^{\circ }\hbox {C}\) for 20 and 40% w/w AuNP concentrations. Analysis of the BLL at the length scales of these ‘fingers’ and ‘arms’ showed that the lowering of \({\textit{T}}_{\mathrm {c}}\) follows two different paths for the two concentrations, through a repulsive force for the lower and an attractive force for the higher concentration at the ‘fingers’ length scale, while at the scale of ‘arms’ the force between NPs is always repulsive. Based on the observations that the repulsive force operates at larger interparticle separation and the attractive one acts at smaller separations, we tentatively assign the first to be a dipolar repulsion and the second to be lipophilic force of quantum mechanical origin. We have also indicated qualitatively how this realignment of forces between nanoparticles can affect the lipophilic force between the hydrocarbon chains of the NP capping and those chains in the monolayer.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Nicolis G and Prigogine I 1977 Self organization in non-equilibrium systems (New Jersey: Wiley)
Cross M C and Hohenberg P C 1993 Rev. Mod. Phys. 65 851
Gollub J P and Langer J S 1999 Rev. Mod. Phys. 71 S396
Bak P 1996 How nature works (New York: Springer)
Barábasi A L and Stanley H E 1995 Fractal concepts in surface growth (Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press)
Flores A, Corvera-Poiré E, Garza C and Castillo R 2006 J. Phys. Chem. B 110 4824
Akamatsu S and Rondelez E 1992 Prog. Colloid Polym. Sci. 89 209
Knobler C M and Desai R C 1992 Annu. Rev. Phys. Chem. 43 207
Kaganer V M, Möhwald H and Dutta P 1999 Rev. Mod. Phys. 71 779
Wang W, Shiwaku T and Hashimoto T 2003 Macromolecules 36 8088
Hansen C R, Westerlund F, Moth-Poulsen K, Ravindranath R, Valiyaveettil S and Bjornholm T 2008 Langmuir 24 3905
Hassenkam T, Norgaard K, Iversen L, Kiely C J, Brust M and Bjornholm T 2002 Adv. Mater. 14 1126
Mogilevsky A, Volinsky R, Dayagi Y, Markovich N and Jelinek R 2010 Langmuir 26 7893
Mogilevsky A and Jelinek R 2011 Langmuir 27 1260
Paczesny J, Sozański K, Dzięcielewski I, Żywociński A and Hołyst R 2012 J. Nanopart. Res. 14 1
Watanabe S, Shibata H, Sakamoto F, Azumi R, Sakai H, Abe M et al 2009 J. Mater. Chem. 19 6796
Choudhuri M and Datta A 2014 J. Nanosci. Nanotechnol. 14 2901
Choudhuri M, Sekar Iyengar A N, Datta A and Janaki M S 2015 Phys. Rev. E: Stat. Nonlin. Soft Matter Phys. 92 032907
Choudhuri M and Datta A 2016 Soft Matter 12 5867
Choudhuri M and Datta A 2018 J. Phys.: Condens. Matter 30 355002
Choudhuri M and Datta A 2016 Phys. Rev. E 93 042804
Bethe H A 1935 Proc. R. Soc. Lond. A 150 552
Ostilli M 2012 Physica A 391 3417
Mukherjee S, Das P S, Choudhuri M, Datta A, Ghosh J, Saha B et al 2017 J. Phys. Chem. C 121 21311
Brust M, Walker M, Bethell D, Schiffrin D J and Whyman R 1994 J. Chem. Soc: Chem. Commun. 801
Hönig D and Möbius D 1991 J. Phys. Chem. 95 4590
Hönig D and Möbius D 1992 Thin Solid Films 210 64
Hénon S and Meunier J 1991 Rev. Sci. Instrum. 62 936
Zhao Y, Wang G C and Lu T M 2001 Experimental methods in the physical sciences (San Diego, USA: Academic Press) vol 37
Lalatonne Y, Richardi J and Peleni M 2004 Nat. Mater. 3 121
Wang J, Chen S, Cui K, Li D and Chen D 2016 ACS Nano 10 2893
Talapin D V, Shevchenko E V, Murray C B, Titov A V and Král P 2007 Nano Lett. 7 1213
Acknowledgements
We would like to thank the Director, Saha of Nuclear Physics for logistics. AD would like to thank the Department of Atomic Energy, India, for the Raja Ramanna Fellowship and Director, CSIR-Central Glass and Ceramic Research Institute, for hosting the Fellowship.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Choudhuri, M., Datta, A. Paths to lowering critical point in a two-dimensional order–disorder transition by Au nanoparticle ‘decoration’. Bull Mater Sci 43, 179 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12034-020-2058-z
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12034-020-2058-z