Curved polymer nanodiscs by wetting nanopores of anodic aluminum oxide templates with polymer nanospheres

Although nanostructures with diverse morphologies have been fabricated, it is still a great challenge to prepare anisotropic two-dimensional (2-D) nanostructures, especially non-planar disc-like nanostructures. In this work, we develop a simple method to prepare curved polymer nanodiscs with regular...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Nanoscale 2014-01, Vol.6 (3), p.1340-1346
Main Authors: Chi, Mu-Huan, Kao, Yi-Huei, Wei, Tzu-Hui, Lee, Chih-Wei, Chen, Jiun-Tai
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Aluminum oxide
Aluminum Oxide - chemistry
Anisotropy
Drug Delivery Systems
Materials Testing
Microscopy, Electron, Scanning
Nanopores
Nanospheres - chemistry
Polymers - chemistry
Polymethyl Methacrylate - chemistry
Polystyrenes - chemistry
Solvents - chemistry
Surface Properties
Temperature
Wettability
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Summary:Although nanostructures with diverse morphologies have been fabricated, it is still a great challenge to prepare anisotropic two-dimensional (2-D) nanostructures, especially non-planar disc-like nanostructures. In this work, we develop a simple method to prepare curved polymer nanodiscs with regular sizes by wetting polymer nanospheres in the nanopores of anodic aluminum oxide (AAO) templates. Polystyrene (PS) nanospheres are first fabricated by using a non-solvent-assisted template wetting method. By annealing the PS nanospheres in the nanopores of AAO templates, curved PS nanodiscs can be produced. The length and morphology of the curved PS nanodiscs can be controlled by the wetting conditions such as the annealing temperatures and times. For some stacked nanospheres, the annealing process can result in the formation of helix-like nanostructures. To demonstrate the universality of this work, this approach is also applied to poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA), another common polymer, and similar results are obtained.
ISSN:2040-3364
2040-3372
DOI:10.1039/c3nr04431a