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Unmodified Clay Nanosheets at the Air-Water Interface.
Paulo H Michels-Brito1, Antonio Malfatti-Gasperini2, Lina Mayr3
1Department of Physics, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, NTNU, 7491 Trondheim, Norway.
Langmuir : the ACS Journal of Surfaces and Colloids
|December 29, 2020
Summary
Unmodified clay nanosheets can now anchor to air-deionized-water interfaces, a significant advance for Pickering emulsion stabilizers and colloidosome capsules. This breakthrough expands the use of clays in interfacial science.
Area of Science:
- Materials Science
- Colloid and Surface Science
- Nanotechnology
Background:
- Quasi-two-dimensional (2D) nanolayers like graphene oxide and clay layers are known to adhere to gas-liquid or liquid-liquid interfaces.
- Clays are widely used as Pickering emulsion stabilizers and for creating colloidosome capsules.
- Previously, clays were only observed at oil-water or air-saline-water interfaces in aggregated states.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the ability of unmodified clay nanosheets to localize at air-deionized-water interfaces.
- To study the organization and behavior of clay nanosheets at the air-water interface.
- To explore the potential of synthetic fluorohectorite for interfacial applications.
Main Methods:
- Langmuir-Blodgett trough studies to analyze film formation and surface pressure.
- Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) to examine the morphology of deposited clay films.
- Grazing-incidence X-ray off-specular scattering (GIXOS) to confirm the presence of nanosheets at the interface.
- Brewster angle microscopy (BAM) to observe the dynamic equilibrium at the interface.
Main Results:
- Unmodified synthetic fluorohectorite clay nanosheets were successfully located at air-deionized-water interfaces.
- BAM revealed a dynamic equilibrium between clay sheets at the interface and in the subphase.
- GIXOS confirmed the presence of clay nanosheets at the air-water interface.
- Clay films could be transferred to solid substrates using the Langmuir-Schaefer method.
- Branched polymer modification significantly enhanced the confinement of clay sheets to the interface.
Conclusions:
- This study demonstrates for the first time the anchoring of unmodified clay nanosheets at air-deionized-water interfaces.
- Synthetic fluorohectorite is a suitable material for achieving unmodified clay anchoring to fluid interfaces.
- The findings open new possibilities for using clays in interfacial stabilization and capsule formation without prior modification.
