Issue 24, 2021

Block-copolymer-like self-assembly behavior of mobile-ligand grafted ultra-small nanoparticles

Abstract

We use coarse-grained molecular dynamics simulations to study the self-assembly behavior of polyoxometalate (POM) nanoparticles (NPs) decorated with mobile polymer ligands under melt conditions. We demonstrate that due to the mobile nature of the grafted ligands on the NP surface, NPs have the ability to expose a part of their surfaces, leading to a block-copolymer-like self-assembly behavior. The exposed NP surface serves as one block and the grafted ligand polymers as another. This system has a strong ability to self-assemble into long-range ordered structures such as block copolymers due to large incompatibility between POM and ligand polymers, i.e., POM NPs can form lamellar, cylindrical, and spherical structures, which are consistent with previous experimental results. More importantly, these ordered structures are on the sub-10 nm scale, which is an important requirement for many applications. At low graft density, we find a new inverse-cylindrical structure formation where polymers form cylinders and POMs form a continuous network structure. A full self-assembly phase diagram is constructed which illustrates rules to manipulate the self-assembly structures of NPs decorated with mobile polymer ligands. We hope that these computational results will be useful for the new design of nanostructures with improved optical or electronic functions.

Graphical abstract: Block-copolymer-like self-assembly behavior of mobile-ligand grafted ultra-small nanoparticles

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
13 Mar 2021
Accepted
07 May 2021
First published
10 May 2021

Soft Matter, 2021,17, 5897-5906

Block-copolymer-like self-assembly behavior of mobile-ligand grafted ultra-small nanoparticles

F. Xu, R. Shi, X. Jia, S. Chai, H. Li, H. Qian and Z. Lu, Soft Matter, 2021, 17, 5897 DOI: 10.1039/D1SM00393C

To request permission to reproduce material from this article, please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

If you are an author contributing to an RSC publication, you do not need to request permission provided correct acknowledgement is given.

If you are the author of this article, you do not need to request permission to reproduce figures and diagrams provided correct acknowledgement is given. If you want to reproduce the whole article in a third-party publication (excluding your thesis/dissertation for which permission is not required) please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

Read more about how to correctly acknowledge RSC content.

Social activity

Spotlight

Advertisements