Rotation in suspension of a rod-shaped colloid.
The simple strategy of coating a closely packed colloid monolayer with a nanometer-thick metal film to connect colloidal spheres and then gently sonicating produces a series of colloid metastructures, including rods and planar sheets. These structures can be fluorescently labeled, which can serve as a probe to monitor their dynamics in complex environments. The metal coating modulates fluorescence emission as these structures rotate in suspension. By analyzing the time sequence of fluorescence images using single-particle tracking techniques, here we measure the rotational dynamics of a rodlike tetramer, quantifying rotation along the long axis.
Hong
Liang
L
Departments of Materials Science and Engineering, Chemistry, and Physics, University of Illinois, Urbana, Illinois 61801, USA.
Anthony
Stephen M
SM
Granick
Steve
S