Optical trapping of titania/silica core-shell colloidal particles

Manipulation of colloidal systems via optical trapping techniques requires a refractive index mismatch between particles and solvent which leads to strong interparticle van der Waals interactions. Investigation of the behavior of systems without such strong attractive interactions, however, requires the uncoupling of particle refractive index and particle-particle interactions. To accomplish this, the synthesis of core-shell titania/silica particles has been performed. By index matching a silica shell on a titania core using a mixture of toluene and propanol, the van der Waals interactions between particles can be minimized. Due to the mismatch of the refractive index between the solvent and titania core, however, a strong trapping force can be generated, making optical manipulation feasible. In order to confirm that the silica shell was indeed matched, pure silica particles were synthesized by the method of Stober (1968) and added to the core-shell system. In these mixed systems of core-shell and pure silica particles in silica-index-matching solvents, only the core-shell particles were trappable. (C) 2000 Academic Press.