Electrostatic self-assembly of charged colloids and macromolecules in a fluidic nanoslit

Research output: Contribution to journalResearch articleContributedpeer-review

Contributors

  • Madhavi Krishnan - , TUD Dresden University of Technology (Author)
  • Zdeněk Petrášek - , TUD Dresden University of Technology (Author)
  • Ingolf Mönch - (Author)
  • Petra Schwille - , Chair of Biophysics (Author)

Abstract

The passive generation of spatial confinement of charged colloids and polyelectrolytes in solution in response to local substrate structure in a fluidic device was investigated. p-Type silicon substrates with 400-1000-nm thermally grown silicon dioxide were coated with 20 nm Cr and patterned by using laser lithography. The substrates were wet-etched in 5% HF solution and anodically bonded to 200 ± 25-μm-thick borosilicate 33 glass. Negatively charged fluorescent carboxyl-modified polystyrene colloidal spheres were introduced at a number density of 2.2 ×1018 in distilled water. Numerical simulations of the electrostatic potential in a fluidic slit was performed by solving the nonlinear Poisson-Boltzmann equation. It was observed that simulation of the total potential energy around a square SiO 2 motif corresponds to a system with surface charge densities.

Details

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)1900-1906
Number of pages7
JournalSmall
Volume4
Issue number11
Publication statusPublished - Nov 2008
Peer-reviewedYes

External IDs

PubMed 18720442

Keywords

Keywords

  • Colloids, DNA, Nanoslits, Self-assembly