TY - JOUR A1 - Mehr, Fatemeh Naderi A1 - Grigoriev, Dmitry A1 - Puretskiy, Nikolay A1 - Böker, Alexander T1 - Mono-patchy zwitterionic microcolloids as building blocks for pH-controlled self-assembly JF - Soft matter N2 - A directional molecular interaction between microcolloids can be achieved through pre-defined sites on their surface, patches, which might make them follow each other in a controlled way and assemble into target structures of more complexity. In this article, we report the successful generation and characterization of mono-patchy melamine-formaldehyde microparticles with oppositely charged patches made of poly(methyl vinyl ether-alt-maleic acid) or polyethyleneimine via microcontact printing. The study of their self-aggregation behavior in solution shows that by change of pH, particle dimers are formed via attractive electrostatic force between the patchy and non-patchy surface of the particles, which reaches its optimum at a specific pH. Y1 - 2019 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1039/c8sm02151a SN - 1744-683X SN - 1744-6848 VL - 15 IS - 11 SP - 2430 EP - 2438 PB - Royal Society of Chemistry CY - Cambridge ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Mehr, Fatemeh Naderi A1 - Grigoriev, Dmitry A1 - Heaton, Rebecca A1 - Baptiste, Joshua A1 - Stace, Anthony J. A1 - Puretskiy, Nikolay A1 - Besley, Elena A1 - Böker, Alexander T1 - Self-assembly behavior of oppositely charged inverse bipatchy microcolloids JF - Small : nano micro N2 - A directed attractive interaction between predefined "patchy" sites on the surfaces of anisotropic microcolloids can provide them with the ability to self-assemble in a controlled manner to build target structures of increased complexity. An important step toward the controlled formation of a desired superstructure is to identify reversible electrostatic interactions between patches which allow them to align with one another. The formation of bipatchy particles with two oppositely charged patches fabricated using sandwich microcontact printing is reported. These particles spontaneously self-aggregate in solution, where a diversity of short and long chains of bipatchy particles with different shapes, such as branched, bent, and linear, are formed. Calculations show that chain formation is driven by a combination of attractive electrostatic interactions between oppositely charged patches and the charge-induced polarization of interacting particles. KW - electrostatic interactions KW - patchy particles KW - polyelectrolyte inks KW - sandwich microcontact printing KW - self-assembly Y1 - 2020 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1002/smll.202000442 SN - 1613-6810 SN - 1613-6829 VL - 16 IS - 14 PB - Wiley-VCH CY - Weinheim ER -