Interfacial chemistry and structures in inorganic-surfactant mesophases and colloidal systems

COLL 458

Bradley F. Chmelka, Niklas Hedin, and Sean C. Christiansen. Department of Chemical Engineering, University of California, Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, CA 93106
The use of self-assembling block copolymers, low-molecular-weight surfactants, or amphiphilic biomolecules to organize inorganic networks involves highly coupled physical, colloidal, and inorganic chemistry phenomena. The associated physicochemical processes are generally complicated, due to the heterogeneous, multicomponent, and non-equilibrium natures of these fundamentally rich and technologically important systems. In particular, interactions at hydrophilic-hydrophobic, inorganic-organic, and air-liquid interfaces are crucial to the development of molecular, mesoscopic, and/or long-range order in these materials. Recent results and perspectives will be presented on molecular measurements and the influences of interfacial chemistry and structures on the organization of inorganic-surfactant mesophases.