title: Self-Assembly of Charged Nanoparticles by an Autocatalytic Reaction Front.
abstract: In this work we present that aggregation of charged and pH sensitive nanoparticles can be spatiotemporally controlled by an autonomous way using the chlorite-tetrathionate autocatalytic front, where the front regulates the electrostatic interaction between nanoparticles due to protonation of the capping (carboxylate-terminated) ligand. We found that the aggregation and sedimentation of nanoparticles in liquid phase with the effect of reversible binding of the autocatalyst (H(+)) play important roles in changing the front stability (mixing length) and the velocity of the front in both cases when the fronts propagate upward and downward. Calculation of interparticle interactions (electrostatic and van der Waals) with the measurement of front velocity revealed that the aggregation process occurs fast (within a few seconds) at the front position.
authors.affiliation: Department of Physical Chemistry and Materials Science, University of Szeged , Szeged, 6720 Hungary.
authors.forename: Bíborka
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Bohner
authors.affiliation: Department of Physical Chemistry and Materials Science, University of Szeged , Szeged, 6720 Hungary.
authors.forename: Gábor
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Schuszter
authors.affiliation: Department of Macromolecular Science and Engineering, Kyoto Institute of Technology , Kyoto 606-8585, Japan.
authors.forename: Hideyuki
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Nakanishi
authors.affiliation: Institute for Technical Physics and Materials Science, Centre for Energy Research, Hungarian Academy of Sciences , Budapest, 1051 Hungary.
authors.forename: Dániel
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Zámbó
authors.affiliation: Institute for Technical Physics and Materials Science, Centre for Energy Research, Hungarian Academy of Sciences , Budapest, 1051 Hungary.
authors.forename: András
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Deák
authors.affiliation: Department of Applied and Environmental Chemistry, University of Szeged , Szeged, 6720 Hungary.
authors.forename: Dezső
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Horváth
authors.affiliation: Department of Physical Chemistry and Materials Science, University of Szeged , Szeged, 6720 Hungary.
authors.forename: Ágota
authors.initials: Á
authors.lastname: Tóth
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics, Budapest University of Technology and Economics , H-1111 Budapest, Budafoki út 8, Hungary.
authors.forename: István
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Lagzi