Self-Assembly of Polymer Brush-Functionalized Inorganic Nanoparticles: From Hairy Balls to Smart Molecular Mimics

• Published in: The journal of physical chemistry letters 2013-11, Vol.4 (21), p.3654-3666
• Main Author: Moffitt, Matthew G
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• ISSN: 1948-7185; 1948-7185
• DOI: 10.1021/jz401814s

New opportunities for complex and controllable self-organization of inorganic nanoparticles (e.g., quantum dots, plasmonic or magnetic nanoparticles) are provided when the stabilizing organic layer at the nanoparticle surface consists of a polymer brush of densely grafted chains. We highlight recent advances in the synthesis and self-assembly of these unique building blocks, termed polymer brush-functionalized nanoparticles (PBNPs). We show how the field has progressed from PBNPs with isotropic, single-component brushes showing limited self-assembly behavior to PBNPs with anisotropic brushes showing directional interactions and complex self-organization. We further discuss how PBNPs with isotropic multicomponent brushes, either mixed brushes or grafted block copolymers, can also exhibit the complex self-organization of molecular amphiphiles via rearrangements within the brush enabled by conformational flexibility. Through numerous examples, we show how established principles of polymer science and surface engineering encapsulated in these composite colloidal building blocks open up vast possibilities for functional self-assembled nanomaterials.