title: Tailoring graphene oxide assemblies by pinning on the contact line of a dissolving microdroplet.
abstract: The controlled dissolution of microdroplets on a supporting substrate is an effective approach that can be used to tune the assembled microstructure of basic units suspended within the droplet. In this work, we studied the self-assembly of two-dimensional graphene oxide (GO) nanosheets driven by the dissolution of a microdroplet situated at the interface between a solid substrate and the surrounding liquid phase. We found that although uniform microstructures form at the liquid-liquid interface of the droplets, the contact between the droplet and the substrate can give rise to a variety of different morphologies near the base of the droplet. In particular, pinning effects at the boundary of the dissolving droplet on the substrate lead to non-spherical GO assemblies. The results in this work demonstrate the possibility that tailored three-dimensional architectures of nanosheets assembled in a dissolving droplet may be achieved through control of the wetting properties of the droplet on the supporting substrate.
authors.affiliation: Division of Interfacial Water and Key Laboratory of Interfacial Physics and Technology, Shanghai Institute of Applied Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai 201800, China. houzhengchi@sinap.ac.cn and School of Civil, Environmental and Chemical Engineering, RMIT University, Melbourne, VIC 3001, Australia. xuehua.zhang@rmit.edu.au.
authors.forename: Haijun
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Yang
authors.affiliation: School of Civil, Environmental and Chemical Engineering, RMIT University, Melbourne, VIC 3001, Australia. xuehua.zhang@rmit.edu.au and Institute of Process Engineering, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100190, China.
authors.forename: Yuting
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Song
authors.affiliation: IBM Research-Australia, Carlton, VIC 3053, Australia.
authors.forename: Matthew T
authors.initials: MT
authors.lastname: Downton
authors.affiliation: Division of Interfacial Water and Key Laboratory of Interfacial Physics and Technology, Shanghai Institute of Applied Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai 201800, China. houzhengchi@sinap.ac.cn and School of Water Conservancy, North China University of Water Resources and Electric Power, Zhengzhou 450045, Henan Province, China.
authors.forename: Songtao
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: School of Water Conservancy, North China University of Water Resources and Electric Power, Zhengzhou 450045, Henan Province, China.
authors.forename: Jianxin
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Xu
authors.affiliation: Division of Interfacial Water and Key Laboratory of Interfacial Physics and Technology, Shanghai Institute of Applied Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai 201800, China. houzhengchi@sinap.ac.cn.
authors.forename: Zhengchi
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Hou
authors.affiliation: School of Civil, Environmental and Chemical Engineering, RMIT University, Melbourne, VIC 3001, Australia. xuehua.zhang@rmit.edu.au.
authors.forename: Xuehua
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Zhang