Monday, August 20, 2012

A simple two-dimensional model system to study electrostatic-self-assembly

Rebecca Cademartiri, Claudiu A. Stan, Vivian M. Tran, Evan Wu, Liam Friar, Daryl Vulis, Logan W. Clark,
Simon Tricard and George M. Whiteside

http://pubs.rsc.org/en/content/articlepdf/2012/sm/c2sm26192h

Millimeter sized polymer objects were enclosed into a container and agitated, which caused the polymers to charge through contact electrification and self-assemble reproducibly. This self-assembly depended on a number of variable including material, size, and shape of container (eg. aluminum, Nylon, teflon, PMMA) and polymers (eg. Nylon, teflon, polyamideimide, HDPE, PP, PS); type, amplitude, and frequency of agitation; and number of spheres of each type of polymer. The group classified three types of structures as crystals, chain, and rosettes, and self-assembly also seemed to play a role in electrical charge of the objects.


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