Maintaining Shell Disorder with Kinked or Branched Ligands Stabilizes Apolar Nanoparticles.

ABSTRACT: Understanding how nanoparticles form stable colloids is fundamental to their practical applications. Nonlinear ligands are known to increase the stability of nanoparticles in apolar solvents compared to shells of linear alkyl chains. Here, we reveal the molecular origin of this colloidal stability. We observe that even a single methyl side chain can suppress disorder-order transitions in the ligand shell, with double bonds or branches leading to drastic decreases in agglomeration temperature in such dispersions. Through a combination of temperature-dependent X-ray scattering and molecular dynamics simulations, we show that these simple structural modifications prevent ligand molecules from forming ordered bundles, maintaining shell disorder even at temperatures approaching solvent freezing

SUBMITTER: Knapp TV 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12509303 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature