Despite its lower stability and higher nucleation barrier, a metastable charge-disordered colloidal phase manages to parasitically crystallize from nuclei of the stable charge-ordered due enhanced kinetic crystal growth.

Functionalized single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWNTs) are widely applied in biomedical science. To understand the interaction between SWNTs and biological systems, various studies have attempted to use coarsegrained molecular dynamics (CGMD). However, there is limited validation of the existing CG models of SWNTs. Here, we present CG models for both pristine and carboxylated SWNTs which are val...

We report on hollow shell-shell nanogels with two polymer shells that have different volume phase transition temperatures. By means of small angle neutron scattering (SANS) employing contrast variation and molecular dynamics (MD) simulations we show that hollow shell-shell nanocontainers are ideal systems for controlled drug delivery: The temperature responsive swelling of the inner shell contr...

We investigate the colloidal stability of gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) coated with zwitterionic sulfobetaine polymers in aqueous solution. Zwitterionic polymers with different molar masses, synthesized by reversible addition-fragmentation chain transfer (RAFT) polymerization of N,N'-dimethyl(methacrylamido propyl)ammonium propanesulfonate (SPP) exhibit a well known Upper Critical Solution Tempera...

The ability to control the dispersion, aggregation, and assembly of colloidal systems is important for a number of applications, for instance, Pickering emulsions, drug and gene delivery, control of fluid rheology, and the formation of colloidal crystal arrays. We generated a responsive colloidal system based on polymer-brush-grafted silica nanoparticles and demonstrated that such a colloidal s...

Fabrication of monodisperse porous polymeric nanospheres with diameters below 500 nm remains a great challenge, due to serious crosslinking between neighboring nanospheres during pore-making process. Here we show how a versatile hypercrosslinking strategy can be used to prepare monodisperse microporous polystyrene nanospheres (MMPNSs) with diameters as low as ca. 190 nm. In our approach, an unr...

Aqueous dispersions of lignocellulosic materials have important applications in such fields as papermaking, pharmaceuticals, and preparation of cellulose-based composites. The present review article considers published literature dealing with the ability of cellulose particle dispersions (fiber, fines, nanorods, etc.) to either remain well dispersed or to become agglomerated in response to chan...

A hypothesis about (transient) colloidal stability as a controlling mechanism for particle formation in SBA-15 is presented. The hypothesis is based on results from both in situ and ex situ investigations, including cryogenic transmission electron microscopy (cryo-TEM), UV-vis spectroscopy, and dynamic light scattering (DLS). Cryo-TEM images show that particles grow via the formation of silica-...

Ligand cross-linking is known to improve the colloidal stability of nanoparticles, particularly in aqueous solutions. However, most cross-linking is performed chemically, in which it is difficult to limit interparticle cross-linking, unless performed at low concentrations. Photochemical cross-linking is a promising approach but usually requires ultraviolet (UV) light to initiate. Using such hig...