Issue 29, 2018

Onion-like metal–organic colloidosomes from counterion-induced self-assembly of anionic surfactants

Abstract

Micelles or vesicles of surfactants, though being long utilized in material synthesis, are yet to be studied in terms of their evolutionary assembly behaviors and their role as a template in mesoscale morphology control. Nevertheless, restricted by their soft and changeable nature, so far investigations of pure micelles or vesicles often rely on state-of-the-art characterization techniques (e.g., in situ ones). Herein, we reported that the self-assembly behaviors of the anionic surfactant SDBS are profoundly affected by the presence of transition metal cations M2+ (M = Co or Ni) (which work as the counterion of the anionic DBS) in a slightly alkaline environment. With well-controlled reaction kinetics, concentric multishelled M(OH)x(DBS)y colloidosomes are formed easily with meta-stability. The electrostatic forces between the anionic DBS and the unsaturated cationic [M(OH)x]y+ species, and the van der Waals forces from the hydrophobic interaction among the DBS molecular tails are the major forces organizing the overall structure. The as-observed colloidosomes on one hand are sufficiently stable which could be separated from the solution and characterized conveniently using ex situ techniques such as FESEM, TEM, XPS, FTIR and XRD. On the other hand, they could either evolve flexibly into a series of layered or shelled metal hydroxide nanostructures via the classical Ostwald ripening process, or react with another reactant to generate other shelled derivatives (e.g., metal silicates). The multishelled colloidosomes and their derivatives from simple thermal treatment were also explored as efficient electrocatalysts for the oxygen evolution reaction. The facile formation, the convenient characterization and the flexible transformation of such onion-like colloidosomes emphasize the important role of counterions in regulating the self-assembly behavior of ionic surfactants so as to construct novel functional materials that are thermodynamically difficult to achieve; they also contribute to a mechanistic study on surfactant-assisted morphology control in material synthesis.

Graphical abstract: Onion-like metal–organic colloidosomes from counterion-induced self-assembly of anionic surfactants

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
02 May 2018
Accepted
16 Jun 2018
First published
18 Jun 2018

J. Mater. Chem. A, 2018,6, 14091-14102

Onion-like metal–organic colloidosomes from counterion-induced self-assembly of anionic surfactants

Y. Zhou, J. Chen, J. Li, Z. Lin and S. Sun, J. Mater. Chem. A, 2018, 6, 14091 DOI: 10.1039/C8TA04057E

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