| Abstract
| - A thermodynamic model was developed for the size-selective fractionation of ligand-stabilized nanoparticlesby a CO2 gas-expanded liquid precipitation process. The tunable solvent strength of gas-expanded liquids,via CO2 pressurization, results in an effective method to fractionate nanoparticles, based on the size-dependentdispersibility of the particles. Specifically, the thermodynamic model is used to estimate the size ofdodecanethiol-capped Ag nanoparticles that can be dispersed at a given CO2 pressure by equating the totalinterparticle interaction energy to the Boltzmann threshold stabilization energy (−3/2kBT). The ligand−solventinteraction is found to have the greatest impact on the total interaction energy. This model illustrates that theentire length of the ligand is not accessible to the solvent, and three phenomenological model variations weredeveloped to vary the ligand−solvent interaction.
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