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Oriented attachment (OA) occurs when nanoparticles in solution align their crystallographic axes prior to colliding and subsequently fuse into single crystals. Traditional colloidal theories such as DLVO provide a framework for evaluating OA but fail to capture key particle interactions due to the atomistic details of both the crystal structure and the interfacial solution structure. Using zinc oxide as a model system, we investigated the effect of the solvent on short-ranged and long-ranged particle interactions and the resulting OA mechanism. In situ TEM imaging showed that ZnO nanocrystals in toluene undergo long-range attraction comparable to 1 kT at separations of 10 nm and 3 kT near particle contact. These observations were rationalized by considering non-DLVO interactions, namely, dipole-dipole forces and torques between the polar ZnO nanocrystals. Langevin dynamics simulations showed stronger interactions in toluene compared to methanol solvents, consistent with the experimental results. Concurrently, we performed atomic force microscopy measurements using ZnO-coated probes for the short-ranged interaction. Our data are relevant to another type of non-DLVO interaction, namely, the repulsive solvation force. Specifically, the solvation force was stronger in water compared to ethanol and methanol, due to the stronger hydrogen bonding and denser packing of water molecules at the interface. Our results highlight the importance of non-DLVO forces in a general framework for understanding and predicting particle aggregation and attachment.

Two-dimensional (2D) materials have attracted intense interest due to their potential for applications in fields ranging from chemical sensing to catalysis, energy storage, and biomedicine. Recently, peptoids, a class of biomimetic sequence-defined polymers, have been found to self-assemble into 2D crystalline sheets that exhibit unusual properties, such as high chemical stability and the ability to self-repair. The structure of a peptoid is close to that of a peptide except that the side chains are appended to the amide nitrogen rather than the α carbon. In this study, we investigated the effect of peptoid sequence on the mechanism and kinetics of 2D assembly on mica surfaces using in situ AFM and time-resolved X-ray scattering. We explored three distinct peptoid sequences that are amphiphilic in nature with hydrophobic and hydrophilic blocks and are known to self-assemble into 2D sheets. The results show that their assembly on mica starts with deposition of aggregates that spread to establish 2D islands, which then grow by attachment of peptoids, either monomers or unresolvable small oligomers, following well-known laws of crystal step advancement. Extraction of the solubility and kinetic coefficient from the dependence of the growth rate on peptoid concentration reveals striking differences between the sequences. The sequence with the slowest growth rate in bulk and with the highest solubility shows almost no detachment; i.e., once a growth unit attaches to the island edge, there is almost no probability of detaching. Furthermore, a peptoid sequence with a hydrophobic tail conjugated to the final carboxyl residue in the hydrophilic block has enhanced hydrophobic interactions and exhibits rapid assembly both in the bulk and on mica. These assembly outcomes suggest that, while the π-π interactions between adjacent hydrophobic blocks play a major role in peptoid assembly, sequence details, particularly the location of charged groups, as well as interaction with the underlying substrate can significantly alter the thermodynamic stability and assembly kinetics.