Journal of Colloid and Interface Science, Vol.534, 81-87, 2019
Depletion-interaction-driven assembly of golf ball-like particles for development of colloidal macromolecules
Colloidal molecules created by clustering monodisperse particles are a significant model system of atoms and molecules in colloidal scale. To attain modelling of complex or high-molecular-weight molecules such as hyper-branched polymers and proteins, it is required to develop a new assembling system which can prepare three-dimensionally designed colloidal molecules. In this study, we proposed an approach for complex colloidal molecules created by association between golf ball-like particles and spherical particles via depletion interaction. Several golf ball-like particles joined together, which formed joined particle assemblies at the spherical particles acting as their joints in a depletant solution. The number of golf ball-like particles in a particle assembly was increased by increasing the concentration of the depletant, leading to the formation of branched colloidal chains of the golf ball-like particles. Because the golf ball like particles in the colloidal chain flexibly rotated at their joints, the conformation of the chains varied in the depletant solution. The present results demonstrated that the golf-ball like particle that can be joined to form colloidal macromolecules with high association number and high flexibility will be a promising building block for complex colloidal model systems. (C) 2018 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.