In situ observation of self-assembly of sugars and surfactants from nanometres to microns.
The hierarchical self-assembly of sugar and surfactant molecules into hollow tubular microstructures was characterized in situ with high resolution small-angle X-ray scattering spanning more than three orders of magnitude of spatial scales. Scattering profiles reveal that aqueous host-guest inclusion complexes self-assemble into multiple equally spaced curved bilayers forming a collection of concentric hollow cylinders. Scattering data can be described by a simple theoretical model of the microtubes. The interlamellar distance was found to be surprisingly large. Moreover, we report that the multi-walled structure of the microtubes swells as the concentration or the temperature is varied.
Van 't Hoff Laboratory for Physical and Colloid Chemistry, Debye Institute for Nanomaterials Science, Utrecht University, Padualaan 8, 3584 CH Utrecht, The Netherlands. S.Ouhajji@uu.nl A.V.Petukhov@uu.nl.
Samia
http://orcid.org/0000-0003-0142-1467
S
Ouhajji
Van 't Hoff Laboratory for Physical and Colloid Chemistry, Debye Institute for Nanomaterials Science, Utrecht University, Padualaan 8, 3584 CH Utrecht, The Netherlands. S.Ouhajji@uu.nl A.V.Petukhov@uu.nl and European Synchrotron Radiation Facility, 71 Avenue des Martyrs, 38000, Grenoble, France.
Jasper
J
Landman
European Synchrotron Radiation Facility, 71 Avenue des Martyrs, 38000, Grenoble, France.
Sylvain
S
Prévost
Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Jinan University, Guangzhou 510632, China.
Lingxiang
L
Jiang
Van 't Hoff Laboratory for Physical and Colloid Chemistry, Debye Institute for Nanomaterials Science, Utrecht University, Padualaan 8, 3584 CH Utrecht, The Netherlands. S.Ouhajji@uu.nl A.V.Petukhov@uu.nl.
Albert P
AP
Philipse
Van 't Hoff Laboratory for Physical and Colloid Chemistry, Debye Institute for Nanomaterials Science, Utrecht University, Padualaan 8, 3584 CH Utrecht, The Netherlands. S.Ouhajji@uu.nl A.V.Petukhov@uu.nl and Laboratory of Physical Chemistry, Eindhoven University of Technology, 5600 MB Eindhoven, The Netherlands.
Andrei V
http://orcid.org/0000-0001-9840-6014
AV
Petukhov