Self and Programmable Assembly of Nanoparticles with Multicompartment Polymer Brushes

CBET 1438240纳米大小的颗粒经常被用作构建块，以制造具有先进功能和独特性能的材料。为了利用其迷人的光学、电子和磁性，必须将纳米颗粒组装成特定技术应用所需的结构。大多数纳米颗粒组装研究使用的是均匀包覆表面活性剂和/或聚合物的球形纳米颗粒。这些粒子的组装导致了具有简单对称性的相。然而，如果能在纳米粒子表面引入具有不同化学性质的“补丁”，所产生的系综结构可能会复杂得多，其性质可以更好地为特定应用量身定做。本项目旨在研究一种新的方法来合成片状纳米粒子，并探索其用于光学和电子应用的自组装结构。虽然计算机模拟表明，片状粒子可以获得广泛的结构，但有限的实验工作已被报道。主要原因是缺乏合成具有可控贴片的粒子的实验方法。新开发的聚合物单晶模板方法将用于合成直径5-100 nm的多隔室纳米颗粒，并通过自我和可编程组装形成复杂的多隔室集合。纳米粒子将有一个统一的中心核心和一个由多个隔间的聚合物刷子组成的外壳。聚合物链和相应的纳米粒子系综的构象可以响应于外部刺激，例如pH、温度和/或溶剂。该项目将为基础科学研究和技术应用建立一个新的纳米颗粒结构库。

CBET 1438240Nanometer-sized particles are often used as building blocks to fabricate materials with advanced functionality and unique properties. To take advantage of their fascinating optical, electronic and magnetic properties, nanoparticles must be assembled into desired structures for specific technological applications. Most studies of nanoparticle assembly use spherical nanoparticles that are uniformly coated with surfactants and/or polymers. Assembly of these particles leads to phases with simple symmetries. However, if "patches" with distinct chemical properties can be introduced onto the surfaces of the nanoparticles, the resulting ensemble structures can be much more complex with properties that can be better tailored for specific applications. This project aims to investigate a novel method to synthesize patchy nanoparticles and to explore their self-assembled structures for optical and electronic applications. While computer simulation suggests that a wide range of structures can be obtained by patchy particles, limited experimental work has been reported. The main reason is the lack of experimental approaches to synthesize particles with controlled patches. The newly developed polymer-single-crystal-templating method will be used to synthesize 5-100 nm diameter multicompartment nanoparticles, and to form complex multicompartment ensembles using self- and programmable assembly. The nanoparticles will have a uniform central core and a shell made up of multicompartment polymer brushes. The conformation of the polymer chains and the corresponding nanoparticle ensembles can be made responsive to external stimuli such as pH, temperature and/or solvents. The project will lead to a library of new nanoparticle structures for fundamental scientific study and technological applications.