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Polymer-assisted self-assembly of superparamagnetic iron oxide nanoparticles into well-defined clusters: controlling
Christian Schmidtke1, Robin Eggers, Robert Zierold
1Institute of Physical Chemistry, University of Hamburg , Grindelallee 117, 20146 Hamburg, Germany.
Abstract:
The combination of superstructure-forming amphiphilic block copolymers and superparamagnetic iron oxide nanoparticles produces new nano/microcomposites with unique size-dependent properties. Herein, we demonstrate the controlled clustering of superparamagnetic iron oxide nanoparticles (SPIOs) ranging from discretely encapsulated SPIOs to giant clusters, containing hundreds or even more particles, using an amphiphilic polyisoprene-block-poly(ethylene glycol) diblock copolymer. Within these clusters, the SPIOs interact with each other and show new collective properties, neither obtainable with singly encapsulated nor with the bulk material. We observed cluster-size-dependent magnetic properties, influencing the blocking temperature, the magnetoviscosity of the liquid suspension, and the r2 relaxivity for magnetic iron oxide nanoparticles. The clustering methodology can be expanded also to other nanoparticle materials [CdSe/CdS/ZnS core/shell/shell quantum dots (QDs), CdSe/CdS quantum dots/quantum rods (QDQRs), gold nanoparticles, and mixtures thereof].
