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    Hybrid nanostructured particles via surfactant-free double miniemulsion polymerization
    ([London] : Nature Publishing Group UK, 2018) Zhao, Yongliang; Liu, Junli; Chen, Zhi; Zhu, Xiaomin; Möller, Martin
    Double emulsions are complex fluid systems, in which droplets of a dispersed liquid phase contain even smaller dispersed liquid droplets. Particularly, water-in-oil-in-water double emulsions provide significant advantages over simple oil-in-water emulsions for microencapsulation, such as carrier of both aqueous and oily payloads and sustained release profile. However, double emulsions are thermodynamically unstable systems consisting typically of relatively large droplets. Here we show that nanoscale water-in-oil-in-water double emulsions can be prepared by adding a silica precursor polymer, hyperbranched polyethoxysiloxane, to the oil phase without any additional surfactants. The resulting double miniemulsions are transformed to robust water@SiO2@polymer@SiO2 nanocapsules via conversion of the precursor to silica and polymerization of the oil phase. Other intriguing nanostructures like nanorattles and Janus-like nanomushrooms can also be obtained by changing preparation conditions. This simple surfactant-free double miniemulsion polymerization technique opens a promising avenue for mass production of various complex hybrid nanostructures that are amenable to numerous applications.
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    Density-Dependence of Surface Transport in Tellurium-Enriched Nanograined Bulk Bi2Te3
    (Weinheim : Wiley-VCH, 2023) Izadi, Sepideh; Bhattacharya, Ahana; Salloum, Sarah; Han, Jeong Woo; Schnatmann, Lauritz; Wolff, Ulrike; Perez, Nicolas; Bendt, Georg; Ennen, Inga; Hütten, Andreas; Nielsch, Kornelius; Schulz, Stephan; Mittendorff, Martin; Schierning, Gabi
    Three-dimensional topological insulators (3D TI) exhibit conventional parabolic bulk bands and protected Dirac surface states. A thorough investigation of the different transport channels provided by the bulk and surface carriers using macroscopic samples may provide a path toward accessing superior surface transport properties. Bi2Te3 materials make promising 3D TI models; however, due to their complicated defect chemistry, these materials have a high number of charge carriers in the bulk that dominate the transport, even as nanograined structures. To partially control the bulk charge carrier density, herein the synthesis of Te-enriched Bi2Te3 nanoparticles is reported. The resulting nanoparticles are compacted into nanograined pellets of varying porosity to tailor the surface-to-volume ratio, thereby emphasizing the surface transport channels. The nanograined pellets are characterized by a combination of resistivity, Hall- and magneto-conductance measurements together with (THz) time-domain reflectivity measurements. Using the Hikami-Larkin-Nagaoka (HLN) model, a characteristic coherence length of ≈200 nm is reported that is considerably larger than the diameter of the nanograins. The different contributions from the bulk and surface carriers are disentangled by THz spectroscopy, thus emphasizing the dominant role of the surface carriers. The results strongly suggest that the surface transport carriers have overcome the hindrance imposed by nanoparticle boundaries.