Selective ordering of surfactant modified gold nanoparticles in a diblock copolymer

Morphological analysis of self-assembled SIS block copolymer matrices containing silver nanoparticles

“…In order to incorporate metallic nanoparticles in the polymeric matrix, two different types of surfactants were used: cetyl trimethylammonium chloride (TMAC) [18] and dodecanethiol (DT) [19,12,20]. For these surfactants the solubility parameters calculated based on the Hoftyzer and Van Krevelen theory are 19.2 and 19.1, respectively [17].…”

“…The thiol functional group (-SH) of dodecanethiol surfactant presents high compatibility with Ag nanoparticles [19]. Dodecanethiol also promotes joining Ag nanoparticles with the PS-block of the PS phase of the block copolymer [12,20].…”

“…Calculations were based on interactions between thiol group of DT and Ag surface [12]. UV-vis spectroscopy was performed by scanning between 200 and 1000 nm.…”

“…In the case of immiscible polymer blends, the phase separation is ruled by entropic phenomena which become dominant especially when the molecular weight of both polymers is sufficiently high. In case of block copolymers, however, the two polymers that constitute the material are unable to phase separate at macroscopic length scales and spontaneously form ordered structures on a molecular scale with domain dimensions of 5-100 nm [11,12]. This means that the blocks can separate at a distance that is comparable with the size of chains of the constituent blocks [13].…”

Surface-initiated atom transfer radical polymerization from TiO2 nanoparticles

“…Research interest in nanoparticles has been fueled by continual discoveries of their new and unique properties that are not often present at larger scale [1][2][3]. The unique properties of nanomaterials are considered to come from their small size and large specific surface area.…”