Customized Colloid-Based Porous Materials

Introduction

Controlling the structure of a material over nanometer to micrometer length scales strongly affects its optical, mechanical, and chemical properties, leading to the possibility of creating novel materials. Colloids are an important means of fabricating colloid-based porous materials, which enable the control of important aspects of the structure, including porosity and order. Synthetic colloid-based porous materials can realize various structures with specific compositions, resulting in properties beyond natural mesoscale materials, such as for catalytic and electrochemical applications. ^[1]

Fig. 1 Colloidal particles, from biology to applications.^[1]

Our Abilities

Alfa Chemistry focuses on colloidal materials in the fields of optics, wetting, sensing, catalysis and electrodes. We have a wealth of knowledge about the key properties required for different applications and also have a good understanding of how to apply colloidal self-assembly processes to meet these requirements.

The fabrication process of our colloidal assemblies includes:

• Composition

Alfa chemistry enables a high degree of control over the composition of CBPMs using simple building blocks. Our colloidal assemblies include both metal, polymer, semiconductor, and oxide nanoparticles, as well as simple polymer or silica particles. We also offer nanoparticle additives and various surface modification technologies.

• Porosity and order

Porous structures are formed when colloids are assembled, which can have a certain degree of order from single crystal to amorphous. Alfa chemistry can provide four kinds of structural components: Order, Disorder, Ordered porosity and Multiple porosities.

• Assembly structures and patterning

Colloidal assemblies and structures prepared by Alfa chemistry can be classified according to their dimensions: (A) colloidal monolayers; (B) colloidal crystals with periodic internal structures; (C) hierarchical assemblies with multiple length scales; (D) Micron-wide superparticles with dispersible structures.

Fig. 2 Overview of types of patterned structures that can be created from colloidal self-assembly processes.[1]

• Scalability

Alfa chemistry utilizes colloidal monolayers assembled on extended regions at the air/water interface to produce high-quality wafer-scale colloidal assemblies.

Our service areas

Our customized services for colloidal-based porous materials include, but are not limited to, the following applications:

• Electrode applications
• Catalytic applications
• Sensing applications
• Wetting applications
• Optical applications

Reference

1. Katherine R. Phillips, et al. A colloidoscope of colloid-based porous materials and their uses. Chemical Society Reviews. 2015, 45(2):281-322.

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