Abstract
Nanoparticles have useful properties, but it is often important that they only start working after they are placed in a desired location. The encapsulation of nanoparticles allows their function to be preserved until they are released at a specific time or location, and this has been exploited in the development of self-healing materials1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10 and in applications such as drug delivery11. Encapsulation has also been used to stabilize and control the release of substances, including flavours, fragrances and pesticides12,13,14. We recently proposed a new technique for the repair of surfaces called ‘repair-and-go’15,16. In this approach, a flexible microcapsule filled with a solution of nanoparticles rolls across a surface that has been damaged, stopping to repair any defects it encounters by releasing nanoparticles into them, then moving on to the next defect. Here, we experimentally demonstrate the repair-and-go approach using droplets of oil that are stabilized with a polymer surfactant and contain CdSe nanoparticles. We show that these microcapsules can find the cracks on a surface and selectively deliver the nanoparticle contents into the crack, before moving on to find the next crack. Although the microcapsules are too large to enter the cracks, their flexible walls allow them to probe and adhere temporarily to the interior of the cracks. The release of nanoparticles is made possible by the thin microcapsule wall (comparable to the diameter of the nanoparticles) and by the favourable (hydrophobic–hydrophobic) interactions between the nanoparticle and the cracked surface.
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Acknowledgements
The authors acknowledge support from the National Science Foundation (NSF), through the NSF Materials Research Science and Engineering Center (MRSEC) on Polymers at UMass Amherst (DMR-0820506), an IGERT award (DGE-0504485, to K.K.), NSF-CBET-0932781 and the NSF-NSEC Center for Hierarchical Manufacturing (DMI-0531171). A.B. acknowledges support from the Department of Energy (grant no. DE-FG02-90ER45438) and T.P.R. from the Department of Energy Office of Basic Energy Science (grant no. DE-FG02-04ER46126).
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A.B., A.J.C., T.E. and T.P.R. conceived the idea and experimental implementation. R.R., R.T., S.K. and S.M. designed and performed the initial experiments. A.B. and G.K. outlined the theoretical basis for the work. A.N., H.S.K. and K.K. prepared the materials and performed the experiments. A.B., A.J.C., K.K., T.E. and T.P.R. were responsible for drafting and editing the manuscript.
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Kratz, K., Narasimhan, A., Tangirala, R. et al. Probing and repairing damaged surfaces with nanoparticle-containing microcapsules. Nature Nanotech 7, 87–90 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1038/nnano.2011.235
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nnano.2011.235
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