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Journal article
Stabilization of Miscible Aqueous Phases via Diffusion-Controlled Multifunctional Nanoparticle-Ligand Complexation
Advanced functional materials
06 Mar 2026
Featured in Collection : Drexel's Newest Publications
Abstract
Liquid-in-liquid structuring by harnessing miscible aqueous domains can be achieved by inducing thermodynamically defined phase separation using aqueous solutions of incompatible solutes, where immiscibility is dictated by the concentrations of the solutes. For instance, in aqueous two-phase systems (ATPSs), the interfacial tension between the two different aqueous solutions is so small that it stabilizes the phase-separated domains, but not their shape, thus falling short of designing tunable, robust structures. Here, we introduce a diffusion-controlled strategy that enables liquid-in-liquid compartmentalization absent a thermodynamically defined interface or bulk liquid-liquid phase separation using a barrier formed in situ at the initial contact boundary of an aqueous dispersion of multifunctional nanoparticles and a solution of multifunctional ligands in pure water or a water/alcohol mixture. The nanoparticles and ligands are entropically driven to disperse uniformly but interact at the initial contact boundary more rapidly than bulk mixing, forming a layer that establishes a barrier akin to a semi-permeable membrane and allows the formation of tubular compartments. A wealth of opportunities is enabled by the proposed technique, where examples in separations, soft electronic devices, and ultralight porous electromagnetic shielding materials are shown.
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Details
- Title
- Stabilization of Miscible Aqueous Phases via Diffusion-Controlled Multifunctional Nanoparticle-Ligand Complexation
- Creators
- Seyyed Alireza Hashemi - University of British ColumbiaMahyar Panahi-sarmad - University of British ColumbiaAhmadreza Ghaffarkhah - University of British ColumbiaVahid Rad - Drexel University, Chemical and Biological EngineeringMasoud Soroush - Drexel University, Chemical and Biological EngineeringThomas P. Russell - Lawrence Berkeley National LaboratoryOrlando J. Rojas - University of British ColumbiaMohammad Arjmand - University of British Columbia
- Publication Details
- Advanced functional materials
- Publisher
- Wiley
- Number of pages
- 12
- Grant note
- CERC-2018-00006 / Canada Excellence Research Chair Program Adaptive Interfacial Assemblies Towards Structuring Liquids program CMMI-2134607 / U.S. National Science Foundation; National Science Foundation (NSF) DE-AC02-05-CH11231 / U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Science, Office of Basic Energy Sciences, Materials Sciences and Engineering Division; United States Department of Energy (DOE) 555586-20; 569824-21 / Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada; Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC); CGIAR
- Resource Type
- Journal article
- Language
- English
- Academic Unit
- Chemical and Biological Engineering
- Web of Science ID
- WOS:001707754100001
- Scopus ID
- 2-s2.0-105032118531
- Other Identifier
- 991022170453704721