2026-10-12T23:29:59Z https://api.figshare.com/v2/oai

oai:figshare.com:article/34001094 2026-09-25T19:24:38Z category_146 category_915 category_7 category_12 category_15 category_21 category_873 portal_63 item_type_2 month_year_09_2026

Self-Assembly of Au/TiO₂ Sphere–Rod Mixtures into Binary Supraparticles Marianne Bijl (25111986) André F. V. Matias (13549557) Lukáš Kolácný (25111989) Erik Betz-Güttner (24180227) Martin Veselý (8373552) Marjolein Dijkstra (1307748) Jessi E. S. van der Hoeven (7547777) Alfons van Blaaderen (7547780) Space Science Physical Sciences not elsewhere classified Medicine Cell Biology Neuroscience Biotechnology Chemical Sciences not elsewhere classified single rod layers length scale control 3d bulk systems binary smectic phases binary smectic ordering advanced electron microscopy smaller 3d assemblies binary smectic phase tio2 </ sub 2 </ sub plasmonic au nanospheres assembled semiconductor tio binary supraparticles self binary supraparticles semiconductor nanoparticles combining plasmonic advanced materials n </ phase tunable phase behavior >< sub ≤ 1 spherical confinement remained unexplored energy storage emulsion droplets colloidal membranes catalytic properties anisotropic properties 6 resulted Self-assembly of rod–sphere nanoparticle mixtures enables the design of advanced materials with anisotropic properties. While the phase behavior of rod–sphere mixtures has been explored in 2D and 3D bulk systems, it has remained unexplored in smaller 3D assemblies. Especially, when combining plasmonic and semiconductor nanoparticles, assemblies with defined particle arrangements offer unique optical and (photo)catalytic properties. In this work, we achieved the assembly of binary 3D assemblies tunable in size and phase behavior. Specifically, we assembled semiconductor TiO₂ nanorods and plasmonic Au nanospheres under spherical confinement and explored their phase behavior in experiments and simulations. Through evaporation-driven assembly of emulsion droplets, binary supraparticles were prepared with a phase tunable from colloidal membranes, consisting of single rod layers, to binary smectic phases, composed of alternating rod–sphere smectic layers. Colloidal membranes were obtained for a sphere-to-rod number ratio (<i>N</i>_Au/<i>N</i>_TiO2) of 5, while lowering this ratio to 0.6 resulted in a binary smectic ordering, as confirmed with advanced electron microscopy. Through numerical simulations, we show that the binary smectic phase is stable for 0 < <i>N</i>_Au/<i>N</i>_TiO2 ≤ 1 in agreement with experiments. Our binary supraparticle platform provides structures with multi-length scale control for applications in photocatalysis, energy storage, and sensing. 2026-09-25T00:00:00Z Dataset Media 10.1021/acsnano.6c12966.s006 https://figshare.com/articles/media/Self-Assembly_of_Au_TiO_sub_2_sub_Sphere_Rod_Mixtures_into_Binary_Supraparticles/34001094 CC BY-NC 4.0