Jonathan A. Bollinger

Synergistic formation and stabilization of oil-in-water emulsions by a weakly interacting mixture of zwitterionic surfactant and silica nanoparticles.

Oil-in-water emulsions were formed and stabilized at low amphiphile concentrations by combining hydrophilic nanoparticles (NPs) (i.e., bare colloidal silica) with a weakly interacting zwitterionic surfactant, caprylamidopropyl betaine, to generate a high hydrophilic-lipophilic balance. The weak interaction of the NPs with surfactant was quantified with contact angle measurements. Emulsions were characterized by static light scattering to determine the droplet size distributions, optical photography to quantify phase separation due to creaming, and both optical and electron microscopy to determine emulsion microstructure. The NPs and surfactant acted synergistically to produce finer emulsions with a greater stability to coalescence relative to the behavior with either NPs or surfactant alone. As a consequence of the weak adsorption of the highly hydrophilic surfactant on the anionic NPs along with the high critical micelle concentration, an unusually large surfactant concentration was available to adsorb at the oil-water interface and lower the interfacial tension. The synergy for emulsion formation and stabilization for the two amphiphiles was even greater in the case of a high-salinity synthetic seawater aqueous phase. Here, higher NP adsorption at the oil-water interface was caused by electrostatic screening of interactions between (1) NPs and the anionic oil-water interface and (2) between the NPs. This greater adsorption as well as partial flocculation of the NPs provided a more efficient barrier to droplet coalescence.

Inverse methods for material design

In this Perspective, we highlight several recent studies that illustrate how inverse strategies using appropriate physical models and computational methods can address complex materials design questions.

Origin and Detection of Microstructural Clustering in Fluids with Spatial-Range Competitive Interactions

Fluids with competing short-range attractions and long-range repulsions mimic dispersions of charge-stabilized colloids that can display equilibrium structures with intermediate-range order (IRO), including particle clusters. Using simulations and analytical theory, we demonstrate how to detect cluster formation in such systems from the static structure factor and elucidate links to macrophase separation in purely attractive reference fluids. We find that clusters emerge when the thermal correlation length encoded in the IRO peak of the structure factor exceeds the characteristic length scale of interparticle repulsions. We also identify qualitative differences between the dynamics of systems that form amorphous versus microcrystalline clusters.

Fluids with competing interactions. I. Decoding the structure factor to detect and characterize self-limited clustering

We use liquid state theory and computer simulations to gain insights into the shape of the structure factor for fluids of particles interacting via a combination of short-range attractions and long-range repulsions. Such systems can reversibly morph between homogeneous phases and states comprising compact self-limiting clusters. We first highlight trends with respect to the presence and location of the intermediate-range order (IRO) pre-peak in the structure factor, which is commonly associated with clustering, for wide ranges of the tunable parameters that control interparticle interactions (e.g., Debye screening length). Next, for approximately 100 different cluster phases at various conditions (where aggregates range in size from six to sixty monomers), we quantitatively relate the shape of the structure factor to physical characteristics including intercluster distance and cluster size. We also test two previously postulated criteria for identifying the emergence of clustered phases that are based on ...

Structure, thermodynamics, and position-dependent diffusivity in fluids with sinusoidal density variations.

Molecular dynamics simulations and a stochastic method based on the Fokker-Planck equation are used to explore the consequences of inhomogeneous density profiles on the thermodynamic and dynamic properties of the hard-sphere fluid and supercooled liquid water. Effects of the inhomogeneity length scale are systematically considered via the imposition of sinusoidal density profiles of various wavelengths. For long-wavelength density profiles, bulk-like relationships between local structure, thermodynamics, and diffusivity are observed as expected. However, for both systems, a crossover in behavior occurs as a function of wavelength, with qualitatively different correlations between the local static and dynamic quantities emerging as density variations approach the scale of a particle diameter. Irrespective of the density variation wavelength, average diffusivities of hard-sphere fluids in the inhomogeneous and homogeneous directions are coupled and approximately correlate with the volume available for insertion of another particle. Unfortunately, a quantitatively reliable static predictor of position-dependent dynamics has yet to be identified for even the simplest of inhomogeneous fluids.

Fluids with competing interactions. II. Validating a free energy model for equilibrium cluster size

Using computer simulations, we validate a simple free energy model that can be analytically solved to predict the equilibrium size of self-limiting clusters of particles in the fluid state governed by a combination of short-range attractive and long-range repulsive pair potentials. The model is a semi-empirical adaptation and extension of the canonical free energy-based result due to Groenewold and Kegel [J. Phys. Chem. B 105, 11702–11709 (2001)], where we use new computer simulation data to systematically improve the cluster-size scalings with respect to the strengths of the competing interactions driving aggregation. We find that one can adapt a classical nucleation like theory for small energetically frustrated aggregates provided one appropriately accounts for a size-dependent, microscopic energy penalty of interface formation, which requires new scaling arguments. This framework is verified in part by considering the extensive scaling of intracluster bonding, where we uncover a superlinear scaling re...

Communication: Local structure-mobility relationships of confined fluids reverse upon supercooling

We examine the structural and dynamic properties of confined binary hard-sphere mixtures designed to mimic realizable colloidal thin films. Using computer simulations, governed by either Newtonian or overdamped Langevin dynamics, together with other techniques including a Fokker-Planck equation-based method, we measure the position-dependent and average diffusivities of particles along structurally isotropic and inhomogeneous dimensions of the fluids. At moderate packing fractions, local single-particle diffusivities normal to the direction of confinement are higher in regions of high total packing fraction; however, these trends are reversed as the film is supercooled at denser average packings. Auxiliary short-time measurements of particle displacements mirror data obtained for experimental supercooled colloidal systems. We find that average dynamics can be approximately predicted based on the distribution of available space for particle insertion across orders of magnitude in diffusivity regardless of the governing microscopic dynamics.

Tuning structure and mobility of solvation shells surrounding tracer additives

Molecular dynamics simulations and a stochastic Fokker-Planck equation based approach are used to illuminate how position-dependent solvent mobility near one or more tracer particle(s) is affected when tracer-solvent interactions are rationally modified to affect corresponding solvation structure. For tracers in a dense hard-sphere fluid, we compare two types of tracer-solvent interactions: (1) a hard-sphere-like interaction, and (2) a soft repulsion extending beyond the hard core designed via statistical mechanical theory to enhance tracer mobility at infinite dilution by suppressing coordination-shell structure [Carmer et al., Soft Matter 8, 4083-4089 (2012)]. For the latter case, we show that the mobility of surrounding solvent particles is also increased by addition of the soft repulsive interaction, which helps to rationalize the mechanism underlying the tracers enhanced diffusivity. However, if multiple tracer surfaces are in closer proximity (as at higher tracer concentrations), similar interactions that disrupt local solvation structure instead suppress the position-dependent solvent dynamics.

How Local and Average Particle Diffusivities of Inhomogeneous Fluids Depend on Microscopic Dynamics.

Computer simulations and a stochastic Fokker-Planck equation based approach are used to compare the single-particle diffusion coefficients of equilibrium hard-sphere fluids exhibiting identical inhomogeneous static structure and governed by either Brownian (i.e., overdamped Langevin) or Newtonian microscopic dynamics. The physics of inhomogeneity is explored via the imposition of one-dimensional sinusoidal density profiles of different wavelengths and amplitudes. When imposed density variations are small in magnitude for distances on the scale of a particle diameter, bulk-like average correlations between local structure and mobility are observed. In contrast, when density variations are significant on that length scale, qualitatively different structure-mobility correlations emerge that are sensitive to the governing microscopic dynamics. Correspondingly, a previously proposed scaling between long-time diffusivities for bulk isotropic fluids of particles exhibiting Brownian versus Newtonian dynamics [Pond et al. Soft Matter 2011, 7, 9859-9862] cannot be generalized to describe the position-dependent behaviors of strongly inhomogeneous fluids. While average diffusivities in the inhomogeneous and homogeneous directions are coupled, their qualitative dependencies on inhomogeneity wavelength are sensitive to the details of the microscopic dynamics. Nonetheless, average diffusivities of the inhomogeneous fluids can be approximately predicted for either type of dynamics based on knowledge of bulk isotropic fluid behavior and how inhomogeneity modifies the distribution of available volume. Analogous predictions for average diffusivities of experimental, inhomogeneous colloidal dispersions (based on known bulk behavior) suggest that they will exhibit qualitatively different trends than those predicted by models governed by overdamped Langevin dynamics that do not account for hydrodynamic interactions.

Impact of solvent granularity and layering on tracer hydrodynamics in confinement

Classic hydrodynamic arguments establish that when a spherical tracer particle is suspended between parallel walls, tracer-wall coupling mediated by the solvent will cause the tracer to exhibit position-dependent diffusivity. We investigate how the diffusivity profiles of confined tracers are impacted by the diameter size-ratio of the tracer to solvent: starting from the classic limit of infinite size-ratio (i.e., continuum solvent), we consider size-ratios of four or less to examine how hydrodynamic predictions are disrupted for systems where the tracer and solvent are of similar scale. We use computer simulations and techniques based on the Fokker-Planck formalism to calculate the diffusivity profiles of hard-sphere tracer particles in hard-sphere solvents, focusing on the dynamics perpendicular to the walls. Given wall separations of several tracer diameters, we first consider confinement between hard walls, where anisotropic structuring at the solvent lengthscale generates inhomogeneity in the tracer free-energy landscape and undermines hydrodynamic predictions locally. We then introduce confining planes that we term transparent walls, which restrict tracer and solvent center-accessibilities while completely eliminating static anisotropy, and reveal position-dependent signatures in tracer diffusivity solely attributable to confinement. With or without suppressing static heterogeneity, we find that tracer diffusivity increasingly deviates on a local basis from hydrodynamic predictions at smaller size-ratios. However, hydrodynamic theory still approximately captures spatially-averaged dynamics across the pores even for very small tracer-solvent size-ratios over a wide range of solvent densities and wall separations.