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

众所周知，无机纳米颗粒(NPs)的大小和形状可以决定它们的性质。相比之下，纳米结构诱导的聚合物材料的性能几乎没有被探索过。虽然一些研究表明共轭聚合物纳米颗粒(CPN)可能具有与块体材料不同的光学或电学性质，但CPN的纳米结构与功能之间的相关性还远未被了解。这种知识和活性的缺乏主要是由于合成结构明确的CPN的困难。由于缺乏材料，对国家方案网络应用的调查受到严重影响。因此，开发以受控方式创建国家方案网络的方法是非常可取的。利用嵌段共聚胶束共价改性的最新进展，本研究旨在以胶束为支架，合成包括固体粒子和壳层结构在内的定义良好的CPN。电学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的纳米科学。因此，我们预计，被发现具有结构决定功能的颗粒将具有潜在的生物医学应用，如生物标志物。

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.