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  • Shape Alloys of Nanorods an...
    Ye, Xingchen; Millan, Jaime A; Engel, Michael; Chen, Jun; Diroll, Benjamin T; Glotzer, Sharon C; Murray, Christopher B

    Nano letters, 10/2013, Letnik: 13, Številka: 10
    Journal Article

    Mixtures of anisotropic nanocrystals promise a great diversity of superlattices and phase behaviors beyond those of single-component systems. However, obtaining a colloidal shape alloy in which two different shapes are thermodynamically coassembled into a crystalline superlattice has remained a challenge. Here we present a joint experimental–computational investigation of two geometrically ubiquitous nanocrystalline building blocksnanorods and nanospheresthat overcome their natural entropic tendency toward macroscopic phase separation and coassemble into three intriguing phases over centimeter scales, including an AB2-type binary superlattice. Monte Carlo simulations reveal that, although this shape alloy is entropically stable at high packing fraction, demixing is favored at experimental densities. Simulations with short-ranged attractive interactions demonstrate that the alloy is stabilized by interactions induced by ligand stabilizers and/or depletion effects. An asymmetry in the relative interaction strength between rods and spheres improves the robustness of the self-assembly process.