Colloid science is critical to a wide spectrum of scientific and industrial challenges ranging from engineering and physics through materials science and chemistry to biology and medicine. It blends well into the current proliferation of research into nanotechnology, enabling researchers to create materials with new and superior properties in a plethora of application fields.

Colloids and Colloid Assemblies offers an authoritative compilation of current colloids expertise in a single volume. Coverage includes latexes, metal naoparticles, semiconductor quantum dots, nanocapsules, and miniemulsions. Various methods for the formation of ordered and patterned particle arrays employed in advanced materials perparation are outlined, and further chapters discuss the use of colloids in various niche applications.

From the Preface: “...Colloid particles have increasingly found use as building blocks for the creation of nanoassemblies that promise to be the next generation of devices for technology-driven applications. For such `nanodevices' to be realized, it is apparent that state-of-the-art colloids with unique properties are required, and the development of flexible strategies that enable their surface modification, as well as protocols that permit their facile assembly into organized functional structures, are of paramount importance. The topics in this book cover precisely these key aspects...”

Target Audience: Academic and industrial researchers and technologists concerned with colloids and colloid assemblies; also upper-level students in a variety of disciplines involving colloid science.

Table of Contents:

Latex Particles

Semiconductor Nanoparticles

Monolayer Protected Clusters of Gold and Silver

Sonochemical Synthesis of Inorganic and Organic Colloids

Colloidal Nanoreactors and Nanocontainers

Miniemulsions for the Convenient Synthesis of Organic and Inorganic Nanoparticles and "Single Molecule" Applications in Materials Chemistry

Metal and Semiconductor Nanoparticle Modification via Chemical Reactions

Nanoscale Particle Modification via Sequential Electrostatic Assembly

Colloidal Crystals: Recent Developments and Niche Applications

Surface-Directed Colloid Patterning: Selective Deposition via Electrostatic and Secondary Interactions

Evolving Strategies of Nanomaterials Design

Nanoparticle Organization at the Air—Water Interface and in Langmuir—Blodgett Films

Layer-by-Layer Self-Assembly of Metal Nanoparticles on Planar Substrates: Fabrication and Properties

Assembly of Electrically Functional Microstructures from Colloidal Particles

3D Ordered Macroporous Materials

Semiconductor Quantum Dots as Multicolor and Ultrasensitive Biological Labels

Colloids for Encoding Chemical Libraries: Applications in Biological Screening

Polyelectrolyte Microcapsules as Biomimetic Models

Index