Abstract
The super-saturated surfactant monolayer collapses with the nanoparticles (NPs) at the water/trichloroethylene (TCE) interface are investigated using molecular dynamics (MD) simulations. The results show that sodium alkyl sulfate (SDS) monolayer collapse is initiated by buckling and followed primarily by budding and the bud encapsulating the NPs and oil molecules. The developed bud detaches from the monolayer into a water phase and forms the swollen micelle emulsion with NPs and oil molecules. We investigate the wavelength of the initial budding and the theoretical description of the budding process. The wavelength of the monolayer increases with bending modulus. The energy barrier of the budding can be easily overcome by thermal fluctuation energy, which indicates that budding process proceeds rapidly.
Highlights
The gas/liquid interface is the traditional medium for the assembly of inorganic ions, biomacromolecules, and inorganic nanoparticles
There are 2 buds appeared per monolayer and 3 swollen micelles with NPs encapsulated detached from the monolayer into the water phase, in the Lx ×Ly = 120 Å × 120 Å system
The neck shrinks its perimeter in order to minimize the energy of the bud-monolayer connection line, which eventually results in the pinching off of the swollen micelles from the monolayer (Fig. 1e)
Summary
The gas/liquid interface is the traditional medium for the assembly of inorganic ions, biomacromolecules, and inorganic nanoparticles. To increase the stability of the gold NPs-coated capsules, the small molecules were introduced into the oil phase for reaction with the chain-end hydroxyl groups of the pegylated ligand This NPs self-assembly on the liquid/liquid interface method combines the advantage of the self-assembly on the liquid/liquid interface such as controllable, predictable spatial location, and the special NPs properties such as fluorescent, superconductive, magnetic. Such multi-functional nano-structured capsule which has the packaging and transport properties can be widely used at drug sustained release and delivery[13]. The NPs are distributed around the SDS tail to investigate the encapsulation caused by the SDS monolayer collapse
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary 
Published Version (
Free)
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call