Probing the adsorption of nonionic micelles on different-sized nanoparticles by scattering techniques

Singh, H.*; Ray, D.*; Kumar, S.*; 高田 慎一  ; Aswal, V. K.*; 瀬戸 秀紀

Singh, H.*; Ray, D.*; Kumar, S.*; Takata, Shinichi; Aswal, V. K.*; Seto, Hideki

The interaction of nanoparticles with surfactants is extensively used in a wide range of applications from enhancing colloidal stability to phase separation processes as well as in the synthesis of noble functional materials. The interaction is highly specific depending on the charged nature of the surfactant. In the case of nonionic surfactants, the micelles adsorb on the surface of nanoparticles. The adsorption of nonionic surfactant C12E10 as a function of surfactant concentration for two different sizes of anionic silica nanoparticles (16 and 27 nm) has been examined using dynamic light scattering (DLS) and small-angle neutron scattering (SANS). The study on different-sized nanoparticles shows that the lower curvature enhances the packing fraction whereas the loss of surface-to-volume ratio suppresses the fraction of adsorbed micelles with the increase in the nanoparticle size.