Solution-Based Fabrication of Narrow-Disperse ABC Three-Segment and Θ-Shaped Nanoparticles
Zhen Zhang1, Changming Zhou1, Haiyan Dong1
1The State Key Laboratory of Molecular Engineering of Polymers and Department of Macromolecular Science, Fudan University, 220 Handan Road, Shanghai, 200433, P.R. China.
Abstract:
Nanoparticles sized tens of nm with not only a highly complex but also a highly regular nanostructure, although ubiquitous in nature, are very difficult to prepare artificially. Herein, we report efficient solution-based preparation of narrow-disperse ABC three-segment hierarchical nanoparticles (HNPs) with a size of tens of nm through a three-level hierarchical self-assembly of A-b-B-b-C triblock copolymers in solution. An ABC HNP is composed of three nanoparticles, A, B, and C that are linearly connected; in the ABC HNP, the B nanoparticle is sandwiched between the A and C nanoparticles. The method for the preparation is highly efficient, because all of the A-b-B-b-C chains in the solution are converted into the ABC HNPs. Furthermore, the ABC HNPs self-assembled into Θ-shaped HNPs tens nm in size. Both the ABC and Θ-shaped HNPs, are highly complex but highly regular, and are novel HNPs, and they should be very promising for addressing various theoretical and practical problems.
