“Micro-Pottery”Marangoni Effect Driven Assembly of
Amphiphilic Fibers
Janhavi S. Raut
Pradeep Bhattad
Aditi C. Kulkarni
Vijay M. Naik
10.1021/la0487848.s001
https://acs.figshare.com/articles/journal_contribution/_Micro_Pottery_Marangoni_Effect_Driven_Assembly_of_Amphiphilic_Fibers/3304504
We report spontaneous supra-assembly of fibrous surfactant crystallites at the air−solution interface
resulting in spectacular arrays of two-dimensional spiral and three-dimensional “micro-pottery”-like
superstructures. Surface pressure differential driven bending of the embryonic fiber nuclei and Marangoni
convection driven fiber migration/alignment appear to be the causal factors behind this phenomenon. The
assemblies form at specific crystal-growth velocities dictated by the relative time scales for fiber bending/alignment and their rigidification/immobilization as they grow. Although our studies are restricted to a
specific class of amphiphiles, namely, alkaline metal salts of linear fatty acids, the phenomenon should
be generic to amphiphilic molecules that crystallize into flexible fibers.
2005-01-18 00:00:00
phenomenon
Amphiphilic Fibers
fiber nuclei
Marangoni convection
assemblies form
Surface pressure
metal salts
surfactant crystallites
amphiphilic molecules
time scales