Assembling Inorganic Nanocrystal Gels

Abstract

Inorganic nanocrystal gels retain distinct properties of individual nanocrystals while offering tunable, network structure-dependent characteristics. We review different mechanisms for assembling gels from colloidal nanocrystals including (1) controlled destabilization, (2) direct bridging, (3) depletion, as well as linking mediated by (4) coordination bonding or (5) dynamic covalent bonding, and we highlight how each impacts gel properties. These approaches use nanocrystal surface chemistry or the addition of small molecules to mediate inter-nanocrystal attractions. Each method offers advantages in terms of gel stability, reversibility, or tunability and presents new opportunities for design of reconfigurable materials and fueled assemblies.

arXiv comment27 pages, 4 figures

References in corpus (5)

• Colloidal Gels: Equilibrium and Non-Equilibrium Routes
• Gelation of Plasmonic Metal Oxide Nanocrystals by Polymer-Induced Depletion-Attractions
• On the Formation of Equilibrium Gels via a Macroscopic Bond Limitation
• Universal Gelation of Metal Oxide Nanocrystals via Depletion Attractions
• Wertheim's thermodynamic perturbation theory with double-bond association and its application to colloid-linker mixtures

Cited by in corpus (4)

• Critical-like gelation dynamics in cellulose nanocrystal suspensions
• Comparative Study of Covalent and van der Waals CdS Quantum Dot Assemblies from Many-Body Perturbation Theory
• Dynamics of equilibrium linked colloidal gels
• Effects of Ligand vs. Linker on Phase Behavior and Mechanical Properties of Nanoparticle Gels