Versatile Macroscale Concentration Gradients of Nanoparticles in Soft Nanocomposites

Patricia Taladriz-Blanco; Barbara Rothen-Rutishauser; Alke Petri-Fink; Sandor Balog

doi:10.1002/smll.201905192

Versatile Macroscale Concentration Gradients of Nanoparticles in Soft Nanocomposites

Small. 2020 Feb;16(6):e1905192. doi: 10.1002/smll.201905192. Epub 2020 Jan 23.

Authors

Patricia Taladriz-Blanco¹, Barbara Rothen-Rutishauser¹, Alke Petri-Fink^{1

2}, Sandor Balog¹

Affiliations

¹ Adolphe Merkle Institute, University of Fribourg, Chemin des Verdiers 4, 1700, Fribourg, Switzerland.
² Chemistry Department, University of Fribourg, Chemin du Musée 9, 1700, Fribourg, Switzerland.

PMID: 31971354
DOI: 10.1002/smll.201905192

Abstract

Nanocomposite materials benefit from the diverse physicochemical properties featured by nanoparticles, and the presence of nanoparticle concentration gradients can lend functions to macroscopic materials beyond the realm of classical nanocomposites. It is shown here that linearity and time-shift invariance obtained via the synergism of two independent physical phenomena-translational self-diffusion and shear-driven dispersion-may give access to an exceptionally high degree of flexibility in the design of scalable and programmable long-range concentration gradients of nanoparticles in solidifiable liquid matrices.

Keywords: Taylor dispersion; bioinspiration; functional gradient materials; nanoparticles; soft nanocomposites.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't