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Published on: May 9, 2014
Self-Assembly of Polyoxometalate-Based Nanoparticle Surfactants in Solutions
Zhiqin Xia1, Yang Yang1,2, Yu-Fei Song1
1State Key Laboratory of Chemical Resource Engineering, Beijing Advanced Innovation Center for Soft Matter Science and Engineering, Beijing University of Chemical Technology, Beijing 100029, China.
Abstract:
Nanoparticle surfactants (NPSs) are an emergent class of amphiphiles attractive for their controllable assembly at the liquid-liquid interface. In this work, intriguing self-assembly behavior and stimuli-responsiveness of NPSs in homogeneous solutions are presented. With β-cyclodextrin-grafted polyoxometalates (POMs) and ferrocene (or azobenzene)-terminated polystyrene in water/tetrahydrofuran, POM-based NPSs are formed via host-guest interactions and self-organize to vesicles driven by solvent-phobic effects. The tunable supramolecular interactions allow these assemblies to be responsive to redox or light stimulus, respectively, affording an on-demand assembly/disassembly capacity that shows promise in delivery and release applications.

