2D “Soap”-Assembly of Nanoparticles via Colloid-Induced Condensation of Mixed Langmuir Monolayers of Fatty Surfactants

We describe a new type of colloidal 2D gels formed in mixed Langmuir monolayers of stearic acid and octadecylamine on a surface of gold hydrosol. The adsorption of gold nanoparticles on the mixed monolayer led to an increase of interactions between oppositely charged surfactants giving a “soap” of mixed fatty salt. The observed effect is equivalent to a virtual “cooling” of floating monolayer, which undergoes rapid condensation on a surface of aqueous colloid. The consequent shrinking and rearrangement of the monolayer resulted in aggregation of nanoparticles into colloidal 2D “soap”-gels, which represented arrested colloidal phases within nonadsorbing organic medium. When sequentially deposited onto solids by Langmuir–Blodgett technique, the 2D “soap”-gels separated into organic and colloidal phases and gave dendrite-like bilateral organic crystallites coated with gold nanoparticles. The reported colloidal “soap”-assembly can offer a new opportunity to design 2D colloidal systems of widely variable chemistry and structures.