Template-mediated self-assembly of magnetite-gold nanoparticle superstructures at the water-oil interface of AOT reverse microemulsions.

ABSTRACT

HYPOTHESIS: Bimetallic magnetite-gold nanostructures are interesting candidates to combine and enhance individual properties of each metal element in catalytic and analytical applications. Microemulsions have been employed in templated synthesis of nanoparticles, and their combination with different types of nanoparticles can further mediate interactions at the water-oil interface, providing new forms of hybrid nanostructures. EXPERIMENTS Reverse water-in-oil microemulsions of droplet sizes below 50 nm were prepared from ternary mixtures of Aerosol-OT (AOT) as surfactant, incorporating 4 nm sized superparamagnetic nanoparticles (MNPs) to the hexane-pentanol oil phase and 5 nm sized polyethyleneimine-stabilized gold nanoparticles (Au(PEI)-NPs) to the water phase. The resulting isotropic L2 phase, Winsor phases and organized nanostructures were investigated using conductometry, calorimetry, UV-Vis spectroscopy, cryo-SEM and HRTEM. FINDINGS: Droplet-droplet interactions, morphology and surfactant film properties of AOT microemulsions could be modulated in different ways by the presence of the different nanoparticles from each liquid phase. Additionally, phase separation into Winsor phases allows the formation upon solvent evaporation of films with bimetallic heterostructures on the micrometer scale. This demonstrates a new way of nanoparticle templated assembly at liquid interfaces by assisted interactions between microemulsions and nanoparticles, as a promising strategy to obtain thin films of small, isotropic nanoparticles with hierarchical ordering.