Capacitive control of colloidal self-assembly

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10654019-B1
Application number	US-201815921451-A
Country	US
Kind code	B1
Filing date	Mar 14, 2018
Priority date	Mar 15, 2017
Publication date	May 19, 2020
Grant date	May 19, 2020

Abstract

A system for controlling the ion content of a colloidal system. A porous deionizer is used to selectively remove and isolate ions from a colloidal system. The colloidal particles within the system have their attraction/repulsion tuned by control of the ion content to alter the interaction between the colloidal particles.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method of forming colloidal crystal arrays comprising:
immersing a first electrode and a second electrode in a colloidal suspension comprising a plurality colloidal particles in a solvent and having a plurality of ions, the first electrode having a first plurality of pores and the second electrode having a second pluralities of pores wherein the first plurality of pores and the second plurality of pores are smaller than the plurality of colloidal particles in the colloidal suspension;
passing a current through the colloidal suspension from the first electrode to the second electrode;
removing a portion of ions from the colloidal suspension;
isolating the removed ions in the first electrode or the second electrode; and
altering a range of attraction/repulsion between individual particles of the plurality of colloidal particles.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the first electrode includes a first electrode electrolyte and the second electrode includes a second electrode electrolyte and wherein the first plurality of pores have a first pore size that is larger than a first molecule size of molecules of the first electrolyte and the second plurality of pores have a second pore size that is larger than a second molecule size of molecules of the second electrolyte.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the first electrode comprises a first semipermeable membrane separating the colloidal particles of the colloidal suspension from the first electrode and wherein the second electrode comprises a second semipermeable membrane separating the colloidal particles of the colloidal suspension from the second electrode.

4. The method of claim 1 , further comprising adding a salt to the colloidal suspension, prior to the salt being dissolved by the solvent.

5. The method of claim 4 , wherein the solvent does not dissociate upon passing the current.

6. The method of claim 1 , further comprising forming a crystal comprising the colloidal particles.

7. The method of claim 6 , further comprising providing a template for crystal growth and wherein forming the crystal comprises forming the crystal on the template and further wherein the crystal has a lattice structure based upon the template.

8. The method of claim 1 , further comprising altering a temperature to tune entropy of the colloidal particles with entropy of the ions.

Assignees

• Univ New York

Inventors

• Chaikin Paul M
• Guerra Rodrigo

Classifications

• B01J2219/089

  Liquid-solid · CPC title

• B01J13/0039 Primary

  Post treatment · CPC title

• B01J19/088

  giving rise to electric discharges (for heating purposes H05B7/00; for the production of ozone C01B13/11, H01T19/00) · CPC title

• B01J2219/0807

  involving electrodes · CPC title

• B01D61/00

  Processes of separation using semi-permeable membranes, e.g. dialysis, osmosis or ultrafiltration; Apparatus, accessories or auxiliary operations specially adapted therefor (separation of gases or vapours by diffusion B01D53/22) · CPC title