Functional hierarchical assemblies of block copolymer-stabilized nanoparticles

对用于光子学、信号处理、生物成像和传感的先进材料的需求促使越来越多的研究领域在纳米尺度上调整材料的性质。金属和半导体纳米颗粒具有独特的光学和电学性质，可以随着尺寸的变化而调节，因此是一种令人兴奋的候选材料，可以作为各种纳米结构材料的“构建块”。对于设备应用，控制纳米颗粒的空间组织是至关重要的，因为集体光学效应在不同的长度尺度上工作。事实上，虽然纳米颗粒研究的前20年主要关注尺寸-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颗粒组织的各个方面。材料科学家面临的另一个挑战是，在薄而灵活的设备的潜力的推动下，将纳米颗粒引入聚合物中。

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.