Monitoring the Dynamic Micellar Self-Assembly in an Aqueous Medium

Abstract

Over the past two decades, amphiphilic rigid-flexible molecules have garnered significant attention due to their ability to self-assemble into well-defined nanostructures through non-covalent interactions in aqueous media. These precisely controlled architectures have demonstrated promising applications across various fields, including biomedicine, catalysis, sensing, and electro-optical devices. Precise control and understanding of dynamic assembly processes, encompassing molecular association and dissociation, are crucial for producing functional particles with targeted structural properties. This necessitates detailed in-situ monitoring of native morphologies in solution. In this study, liquid-phase transmission electron microscopy (LP-TEM) enabled quantitative analysis of self-assembly through high-precision tracking of micelle trajectories. Interparticle forces were experimentally quantified by measuring the velocity and diffusion coefficients at the single-particle level.