Interfacial dispersion of poly(N-isopropylacrylamide)/ gold nanocomposites

The nanoparticle dispersity and interfacial property could be considered as a basis of their further application in the nanostructured materials. In this paper, the dispersity and interfacial phenomena of poly(N-isopropylacrylamide) modified gold nanoparticles were investigated. Firstly, such polymer/gold nanocomposites were demonstrated to have a good dispersity in water, tetrahydrofuran, alcohols and also chloroform, so they were used to entrap fluorescent dye-labelled lipids in chloroform as nanocontainers and subsequently delivery the fluorescent lipids into water as nanocarriers. Secondly, when the nanocomposites in water/chloroform mixture were heated above 35 degrees C, the nanocomposite particles could be partially transferred from water into chloroform across the interface, and they would come back into water again as cooling, displaying a reversible thermal response. Moreover, such polymer/gold nanocomposites at the immiscible water/toluene fluids preferred to assembly into 2-dimensional membranes with variable density at the water/oil interface. The special dispersion properties of the poly(N-isopropylacrylamide)/gold nanocomposites provide many potentials in the future.