Polymer-guided assembly of inorganic nanoparticles

Abstract

The self-assembly of inorganic nanoparticles is of great importance in realizing their enormous potentials for broad applications due to the advanced collective properties of nanoparticle ensembles.

Bidimensional lamellar assembly by coordination of peptidic homopolymers to platinum nanoparticles

“…Description of the nanostructuration. The NPs were synthesized by decomposition of Pt 2 (dba) 3 (dba = dibenzylideneacetone) under a CO atmosphere in THF, followed by complete elimination of the organic dba residue by washing with pentane 18 . TEM pictures showed well-dispersed NPs, with diameters of 1.2 ± 0.3 nm ( Fig.…”

“…S tructuring hybrid materials combining metallic nanoparticles (NPs) and polymers has stimulated a large effort to make new physical properties emerging: optical, electronic, or magnetic [1][2][3] . Such composites have the potential of improving the functionality of devices ranging from memory storage to sensors or microelectronic systems 4,5 .…”

“…The obtained morphologies are driven by (1) the entropy of mixing of the two blocks, described by the Flory-Huggins solution theory 15,16 , and (2) their corresponding volume fractions 17 , taking into account that, in presence of NPs, there is a significant decrease in the copolymers' conformational entropy coming from particle sequestration 10 . Although very promising in many situations, the diblock copolymer approach shows important limitations: (1) a constrained size ratio between the two blocks to access lamellar assemblies (generally comprised between 0.4 and 0.6 volume fraction with random coil polymers), (2) in presence of NPs, an imprecise control of their localization (as it is governed by entropy) and (3) in solution, a strong dependence to experimental conditions (concentration, temperature, presence of cosolvent, etc.) 10,15,16 .…”

Flexible Photothermal Assemblies with Tunable Gold Patterns for Improved Imaging‐Guided Synergistic Therapy

“…Self-assembly is a distinguished strategy to prepare various well-defined nanostructures with superior properties and functions for biomedical applications. [14][15][16][17] Assemblies of spherical gold nanoparticles possess photothermal properties with strong NIR absorption arising from plasmonic coupling effect between adjacent nanoparticles. [18][19][20] Furthermore, tumor microenvironment-responsive assembly could be introduced to realize specific aggregation of gold nanoparticles at the tumor sites.…”

“…[21,22] A variety of gold assemblies including clusters, vesicles, micelles have been fabricated employing polymer-grafted gold nanoparticles as the building blocks for PAI, PTT, or drug delivery. [17] However, the development of a general and facile approach to produce a series of morphology-controlled gold assemblies still remains great challenges.…”