Gelation of Plasmonic Metal Oxide Nanocrystals by Polymer-Induced Depletion-Attractions

Gelation of colloidal nanocrystals (NCs) emerged as a strategy to preserve inherent nanoscale properties in multiscale architectures. Yet available gelation methods still struggle to reliably control nanoscale optical phenomena such as photoluminescence and localized surface plasmon resonance (LSPR) across NC systems due to processing variability. Here, we report on an alternative gelation method based on physical inter-NC interactions: short-range depletion-attractions balanced by long-range electrostatic repulsions. The latter are established by removing the native organic ligands that passivate tin-doped indium oxide (ITO) NCs while the former are introduced by mixing with small polyethylene glycol (PEG) chains. As we incorporate increasing concentrations of PEG, we observe a reentrant phase behavior featuring two favorable gelation windows; the first arises from bridging effects while the second is attributed to depletion-attractions according to phase behavior predicted by our unified theoretical model. The NCs remain discrete within the gel network, based on X-ray scattering and high-resolution transmission electron microscopy. The infrared optical response of the gel is reflective of both the NC building blocks and the network architecture, being characteristic of ITO NC LSPR with coupling interactions between neighboring NCs.