Electrostatic Self-assembly : A New Route Towards Nanostructures

During the last 3 years, our group has investigated extensively the complexation mechanism between neutral-polyelectrolyte block copolymers with oppositely charged species. These species are surfactant micelles, multivalent counterions and inorganic nanoparticles. In the three cases, we have established the thermodynamical phase diagram of these systems, and found broad regions where supramolecular aggregates spontaneously form via electrostatic self-assembly. From earlier works, it was suspected that these mixed colloids exhibit a core-shell structure. However, their inner structure was unveiled by us only recently, using a combination of light, neutron and x-ray scattering experiments.