Issue 29, 2014
From the journal:

Soft Matter

Self-assembly in an evaporating nanofluid droplet: rapid transformation of nanorods into 3D fibre network structures†

H. Wu,a   L. X. Chen,a   X. Q. Zeng,b   T. H. Ren*a  and  Wuge H. Briscoe*c  

* Corresponding authors

a School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai 200240, PR China
E-mail: thren@sjtu.edu.cn

b Laboratory for Surface Technology and Tribology, Faculty of Engineering Technology, University of Twente, Enschede, The Netherlands

c School of Chemistry, University of Bristol, Cantock's Close, Bristol BS8 1TS, UK
E-mail: wuge.briscoe@bristol.ac.uk

Abstract

Upon evaporation, ZnO nanorods in a nanofluid droplet undergo rapid and spontaneous chemical and morphological transformation into centimetre-long Zn(OH)2 fibres, via a mechanism very different from that for coffee rings. We show that the detailed nanostructure and micromorphology in the residual thin film depend intricately on the ambient moisture, nanofluid solvent composition and substrate surface chemistry. Upon thermal annealing, these Zn(OH)2 fibres readily undergo further chemical and morphological transformation, forming nanoporous fibres with the pore size tuneable by temperature. Our results point to a simple route for generating a self-assembled 3D structure with ultralong and nanoporous ZnO/Zn(OH)2 fibres/belts, and may also be of interest to the fields of evaporation controlled dynamic self-assembly, non-equilibrium crystallisation, and flow and fingering instabilities in nanofluids.

Graphical abstract: Self-assembly in an evaporating nanofluid droplet: rapid transformation of nanorods into 3D fibre network structures

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Article information

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1039/C4SM00887A
Article type
Communication
Submitted
23 Apr 2014
Accepted
02 Jun 2014
First published
04 Jun 2014
This article is Open Access
Creative Commons BY license

Soft Matter, 2014,10, 5243-5248

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Self-assembly in an evaporating nanofluid droplet: rapid transformation of nanorods into 3D fibre network structures

H. Wu, L. X. Chen, X. Q. Zeng, T. H. Ren and W. H. Briscoe, Soft Matter, 2014, 10, 5243 DOI: 10.1039/C4SM00887A

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