Micelle-Assisted Synthesis of Conjugated Polymer Nanoparticles (CPNs) with Tunable Structures

众所周知，无机纳米颗粒（NP）如Au NP的尺寸和形状可以决定它们的性质。相比之下，聚合物材料的纳米结构诱导性质几乎未被探索。虽然一些研究表明，共轭聚合物纳米粒子（CPNs）可能具有不同于块状材料的光学或电子性质，但CPNs的纳米结构与功能之间的相关性远未被理解。这种知识和活动的缺乏主要是由于合成具有明确结构的CPN的困难。由于缺乏材料，对氯化石蜡应用情况的调查受到严重影响。因此，非常希望开发以受控方式创建CPN的方法。利用嵌段共聚物胶束共价修饰的最新进展，拟议的研究旨在合成定义明确的CPNs，包括固体颗粒和壳结构，使用胶束作为支架。电子和光学性质将作为结构的函数进行研究，以帮助我们理解聚合物纳米科学。因此，我们期望发现具有结构决定功能的颗粒将具有生物医学应用的潜力，例如生物标记物。

It has become well known that the size and shape of inorganic nanoparticles (NPs) such as Au NPs can determine their properties. In contrast, nanostructure-induced properties of polymer materials are virtually unexplored. Although some studies have suggested that conjugated polymer nanoparticles (CPNs) may have optical or electronic properties different from bulk materials, the correlation between the nano-structure and functions of CPNs is far from understood. This lack of knowledge and activity is mainly due to the difficulty in the synthesis of CPNs with well-defined structures. As a result of the lack of materials, investigations into the applications of CPNs are severely compromised. It is therefore highly desirable to develop methodologies to create CPNs in a controlled manner. Taking advantage of recent developments in covalent modification of block copolymer micelles, the proposed research aims to synthesize well-defined CPNs, including solid particles and shell structures, using micelles as scaffolds. The electronic and optical properties will be investigated as a function of the structures, to help us understand polymer nanoscience. Consequently, we expect that the particles that are found to have structure-determined functions will have potential for biomedical applications such as bio-markers.