Controlling formation and assembling of nanoparticles by control of electrical charging, polarization, and electrochemical potential

Abstract

AbstractThe well-known concept of electrical charging for the stabilization of colloidal solutions is extended to a general concept for explanation of behavior of nanoparticles during their formation, in their response behavior on chemical or electrochemical stress, and in particle/particle interactions. This concept helps to understand the formation of polynuclear sphere-like plasmonic nanoparticles of gold, the surprising high stability of extended flat silver nanoprisms, and their switch-like transformation as well as the formation of special types of nanoparticle assemblies. It can be used for controlling the size of nanoparticles, for the synthesis of composite micro and nanoparticles, and for the generation of different classes of nonspherical polymer particles by particle/particle interactions during the process of particle growth. The reported experimental examples were mainly obtained by microfluidic experiments, which supplied a high homogeneity of the product particles. This high homogeneity is an excellent basis for studying the nanoparticle behavior in analogy to molecular processes and helps to get new insights in to the importance of electrical effects for nanoparticle synthesis and nanoparticle assembling.