EMSPCE

Self-assembly of nanoparticles (NPs) offers a versatile platform for the design of novel (meta) materials with enhanced collective properties that are distinct from the sum of the their components. A promising route to structure NPs over multiple length scales is to let the NPs assemble in spherical confinement to form Supraparticles (SPs). It is challenging to design multi-component SPs as the parameter space to achieve the optimum thermodynamics and kinetic effects is large. To tackle this challenge, we will apply cation exchange (CE) to already self-assembled SPs containing quantum dots (QDs). Multi-component SPs with different structures will be obtained, which is impossible to achieve by conventional synthetic routes. A complete analysis of resulting CE-ed SPs is essential because a thorough understanding of the structure-property connection of the SPs will enable more rational synthesis of novel structures with predefined properties. We will apply advanced Energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy tomography to CE-ed SPs to extract positions, orientations, and elemental distributions of singe QDs in 3D. We will utilize advanced heating holder for electron tomography study heat-induced morphological and compositional- changes of the CE-ed SPs in 3D.

Keywords:SELF-ASSEMBLY, ELECTRON MICROSCOPY

Disciplines:Soft condensed matter, Optical physics not elsewhere classified