Functional hierarchical assemblies of block copolymer-stabilized nanoparticles

光子学、信号处理、生物成像和传感领域对先进材料的需求刺激了纳米级调谐材料特性的研究领域的发展。金属和半导体纳米粒子是各种纳米结构材料的“基石”，由于其独特的光学和电子特性，可以作为尺寸的函数进行调整。对于器件应用，控制纳米粒子的空间组织是至关重要的，因为在不同的长度尺度上操作的集体光学效应。事实上，前20年的纳米粒子研究主要关注尺寸-性质关系，而近年来研究人员已经开始在多个长度尺度上研究纳米粒子的组织。材料科学家面临的另一项挑战是将纳米颗粒结合到聚合物中，这是由薄而柔韧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.