Hierarchical Self-Assembly of Toroidal Micelles into Multidimensional Nanoporous Superstructures

Area of Science:

• Materials Science
• Nanotechnology
• Polymer Chemistry

Background:

• Controlled porosity is crucial for industrial and domestic applications.
• Existing methods struggle to create functional materials with fully open, sub-100 nm pores.
• Fabricating materials with specific nanoporous structures remains a significant challenge.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop a novel method for constructing multidimensional nanoporous superstructures with sub-100 nm pore sizes.
• To utilize block copolymer toroidal micelles as building blocks for hierarchical assembly.
• To control interparticle interactions for tailored pore formation.

Main Methods:

• Hierarchical assembly of block copolymer toroidal micelles.
• Modulation of interparticle interactions, including van der Waals forces and hydrogen bonding.
• Drying on a substrate and direct assembly in solution.

Main Results:

• Successfully fabricated multidimensional nanoporous superstructures with pore sizes of 85-90 nm.
• Demonstrated the aggregation of toroidal micelles into ordered structures (oligo-supermicelles, 2D hexagonal arrays) via van der Waals interactions.
• Achieved 3D nanoporous superstructures in solution through synergistic hydrogen bonding.

Conclusions:

• Block copolymer toroidal micelles can serve as effective building blocks for creating nanoporous materials.
• Interparticle interactions are key to controlling the assembly and resulting porous architecture.
• The developed method offers a pathway to precisely engineer sub-100 nm porous materials.