Snowman-shaped particles at the oil-water interface

Abstract

Snowman-shaped polystyrene-based particles of about 2 μm in size were synthesized. The lobes are chemically different; the seed lobe can be modified without affecting the protrusion lobe, as confirmed fluorescence microscopy. For the interface assembly, the particles were spread on a decane-water interface. Here, we used optical microscopy to observe the structures that were formed by the particles, caused by shape-induced capillary attractions. We do see promising dimer structures, although there are always many aggregates present. The aggregates keep growing over time. The particles are not yet very homogenous in size, nor in shape. This is probably one of the reasons why the structures that were formed at the interface do not have much ordering yet.