Building Polymers from Inorganic Nanoparticles

Organized arrays of inorganic nanoparticles (NPs) show electronic, optical, and magnetic properties that originate from the coupling of size- and shape-dependent properties of individual nanoparticles. Controllable and predictable organization of NPs in complex, hierarchical structures provides a route to the fabrication of new materials and functional devices.

In my talk, I will present two new paradigms for the self-assembly of NPs. One of the approaches exploits a striking analogy between amphiphilic ABA triblock copolymers and polymer-tethered inorganic nanorods in structures with varying geometries and functions.  The self-assembly is tunable and reversible, and it is achieved solely by changing the solvent quality for the constituent polymer or inorganic blocks. The self-assembly process is conveniently mapped by the phase-like diagrams.

The second approach relies on the similarity between the self assembly of inorganic NPs and reaction-controlled step-growth polymerization. This approach enables the prediction of the kinetics and statistics of NP self-assembly in 1D structures, and the aggregation number, polydispersity and "isomerism" of the self-assembled nanostructures

We demonstrate the ability to control the optical properties of the self-assembled nanostructures. The proposed strategy provides a new route to the quantitatively predicted organization of NPs in supracolloidal assemblies.

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Refreshments will be served.