Self-assembly of iron oxide nanoparticles as observed by time-resolved grazing incidence small angle x-ray scattering

Siffalovic, Peter1; Majkova, Eva1; Chitu, Livia1; Jergel, Matej1; Luby, Stefan1; Satka, Alexander1; Roth, Stephan2 1Slovakia; 2Germany

The evaporation of colloidal nanoparticle solutions is known to produce ordered monolayers of nanoparticles. The in situ time-resolved grazing incidence small angle x-ray scattering was employed to study the self-assembling of iron oxide nanoparticles from colloidal solution. The colloidal solution was dropped onto the silicon substrate and non-coplanar x-ray scattering was recorded as a function of time with the resolution up to 100 ms. The x-ray scattering contributions from the evaporating drop volume and surface as well as from the substrate surface were monitored and identified. The x-ray scattering from the drop surface for the distances as close as 80 µm to the substrate surface shows neither self-assembled clusters in the drop volume nor the self-assembled domains at the drop surface. The presented measurements are pointing to the vicinity of the three-phase drop contact line as a region of nanoparticle self-assembling.

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