The self-assembly of amphiphilic polymers in water: fundamental physio-chemical studies toward multiresponsive systems

纳米技术已经成为全世界日常生活的一部分，带来希望、兴奋或恐惧。它是通信、娱乐、废物管理、“绿色”能源和医疗保健等领域最新进展的基础。纳米尺寸的金属，如金和半导体，以发光量子点的形式，在纳米材料的细化中起着至关重要的作用。软材料也是这场革命的积极贡献者。事实上，“活性”一词应该从字面上理解，因为许多纳米材料依赖于所谓的“刺激响应聚合物”，当外部环境发生微小的特定变化时，这些聚合物会在物理性质或化学结构上表现出巨大的、可逆的或不可逆的变化。这些应用选择的软材料是精心制作的大分子，与为“低技术”用途而设计的廉价商品聚合物几乎没有相似之处。直观地，人们会预期响应性聚合物应该在检测和传感应用中发挥重要作用。然而，与传统传感器相比，响应性聚合物传感器的发展仍处于起步阶段，这种情况强烈支持加强该领域的研究。

Nanotechnology has become part of daily life throughout the world, bringing with it hope, excitement, or fear. It underlies the latest advances in areas as varied as communications, entertainment, waste management, "green" energy, and healthcare. Nanosized metals, such as gold, and semiconductors, in the form of luminescent quantum dots, play a crucial role in the elaboration of nanomaterials. Soft materials, also, are active contributors in this revolution. The term "active" should in fact be taken literally, since many nanomaterials rely on the so-called "stimuli-responsive polymers" that exhibit large, reversible or irreversible, changes in physical properties or chemical structures upon application of small and specific changes in their external environment. The soft materials of choice for such applications are finely crafted macromolecules, which bear little similarity to the cheap commodity polymers designed for "low-tech" uses. Intuitively, one would anticipate that responsive polymers should play an important role in detection and sensing applications. However, the development of responsive polymer-based sensors is still in its infancy compared to conventional sensors, a situation that strongly argues in favor of enhanced research in this field.