Assembly of partially covered strawberry supracolloids in dilute and concentrate aqueous dispersions.

HYPOTHESIS: Core-corona supracolloids can be assembled in aqueous dispersions by controlling the physical interactions between the corona and core colloidal particles. A raspberry corona configuration with full surface coverage of the core can be reached by inducing strong attractive interactions between the individual particles. A controlled partial surface coverage of the core, i.e. strawberry configuration, is however, more difficult to achieve. Supracolloids with different surface coverage ratio exhibit unique and multifunctional surface properties.

EXPERIMENTS: By counterbalancing the multiple physical interactions playing a role during the assembly, the configuration and stability of the assemblies could be fine-tuned over a wide range of concentrations. Supracolloids consisting of polyethylene glycol (PEO)-grafted polymer particles covered by silica nanoparticles were assembled with different configurations, by adjusting the pH and ionic strength of the dispersion, the PEO grafting density and the particles concentration. The self-assembly process and resulting configurations were monitored via cryogenic transmission electron microscopy (Cryo-TEM) and light scattering.

FINDINGS: The suitable conditions to assemble supracolloids with partial corona coverage have been established. Stable strawberry supracolloids could be prepared, both for diluted (1 wt%) and concentrated (12 wt%) dispersions. These hybrid supracolloids with well-defined configuration are highly relevant to developing advanced water-borne paints and inks, food dispersions, cosmetic and healthcare products.