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Block-copolymer-like self-assembly behavior of mobile-ligand grafted ultra-small nanoparticles
- Source :
- Soft Matter. 17:5897-5906
- Publication Year :
- 2021
- Publisher :
- Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC), 2021.
-
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.
- Subjects :
- chemistry.chemical_classification
Materials science
Nanostructure
Ligand
Nanoparticle
02 engineering and technology
General Chemistry
Polymer
010402 general chemistry
021001 nanoscience & nanotechnology
Condensed Matter Physics
01 natural sciences
0104 chemical sciences
Chemical engineering
chemistry
Polyoxometalate
Copolymer
Lamellar structure
Self-assembly
0210 nano-technology
Subjects
Details
- ISSN :
- 17446848 and 1744683X
- Volume :
- 17
- Database :
- OpenAIRE
- Journal :
- Soft Matter
- Accession number :
- edsair.doi.dedup.....0872ab3b21aeaeaca22e61d84920be0a