Theoretical and Experimental Investigation of Phase Separation in Noble Metal Nanoparticle Monolayers

Controlling the interfacial area of nanoparticles is a crucial component to controlling their properties due to their high surface area to volume ratio. One of the most common ways to control this interfacial area is with the use of a monolayer. Therefore, careful design of nanoparticle monolayers allows for a wide range of control of nanoparticle properties. Our work looks at the design rules that influence the morphology of a monolayer. To do this we use a combination of experimental and computational techniques to explore the effect of physical and chemical changes in the nanoparticle monolayer systems. Experimentally we use Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM) to assess nanoparticle shape and size and Matrix-Assisted Laser Desorption and Ionization (MALDI) to assess the degree of order present in nanoparticle monolayers. In addition, we model the systems using both Self-Consistent Field Theory (SCFT) and atomistic simulations to model these nanoparticle monolayers. We are then able to calculate predicted MALDI spectrum from these simulations which allows us to directly compare theory and experiment. This direct comparison allows us to have greater confidence in the insights provided by our computational simulation.