Amphiphilic Block Copolymer Aided Design of Hybrid Assemblies of Nanoparticles: Nanowire, Nanoring, and Nanocluster

Abstract

We investigate the self-assembly and aggregation behaviors of nanoparticles in hybrid assemblies made from amphiphilic block copolymer tethered nanoparticles using the dissipative particle dynamics (DPD) approach. By varying the arm number of the tethered amphiphilic block copolymers, hydrophobic block chain length, and interaction parameter between nanoparticle and hydrophobic block, different morphological hybrid aggregates are obtained, including branching rod-like micelles, ring-like micelles, disk-like micelles, and vesicles. Most importantly, the nanoparticles aggregate in the various micelles and form nanowires, nanorings, and nanoclusters. Only using amphiphilic block copolymer tethered nanoparticles, hybrid vesicles including patchy vesicles and heterogeneous vesicles are obtained. Moreover, nanoclusters with distinct number of nanoparticles in hybrid disk-like micelles and vesicles are fabricated through controlling the interaction parameter between nanoparticle and hydrophobic block.