Functional hierarchical assemblies of block copolymer-stabilized nanoparticles

对光子学、信号处理、生物成像和传感的先进材料的需求刺激了在纳米尺度上调整材料性能的研究领域的不断发展。金属和半导体纳米颗粒是令人兴奋的候选人作为“积木”的各种纳米结构材料，由于独特的光学和电子性能，可以调整作为一个功能的大小。对于器件应用，由于在不同长度尺度上操作的集体光学效应，控制纳米颗粒的空间组织是至关重要的。事实上，尽管前20年的纳米粒子研究主要关注的是尺寸-性质关系，但近年来研究人员已经开始在多个长度尺度上解决纳米粒子组织的各个方面。材料科学家面临的另一个挑战是将纳米颗粒掺入聚合物中，这是由薄而灵活的设备的潜力所驱动的。

The need for advanced materials for photonics, signal processing, biological imaging, and sensing has spurred a growing field of research into tuning material properties at the nano-scale. Metallic and semiconductor nanoparticles are exciting candidates as "building blocks" for a diverse range of nanostructured materials, due to unique optical and electronic properties that can be tuned as a function of size. For device applications, controlling the spatial organization of nanoparticles is critical, due to collective optical effects that operate on different length scales. In fact, whereas the first 20 years of nanoparticle research was concerned primarily with size-property relations, researchers in recent years have begun to address aspects of nanoparticle organization on multiple length scales. Another challenge for materials scientists has been the incorporation of nanoparticles into polymers, driven by the potential for thin and flexible devices.