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Surface Patterning of Nanoparticles with Polymer Patches

September 19, 2016

We demonstrate nanoparticle surface patterning, which utilizes thermodynamically driven segregation of polymer ligands from a uniform polymer brush into surface pinned micelles following a change in solvent quality. Patch formation is reversible but can be permanently preserved using a photocrosslinking step. The methodology offers the ability to control the dimensions of patches, their spatial distribution and the number of patches per nanoparticle, in agreement with a theoretical model. The versatility of the strategy is demonstrated by patterning nanoparticles with different dimensions, shapes and compositions, tethered with various types of polymers and subjected to different external stimuli. These patchy nanocolloids have potential applications in fundamental research, the self-assembly of nanomaterials, diagnostics, sensing and colloidal stabilization.

Author(s) with affiliations: 

  1. Department of Chemistry, University of Toronto, 80 Saint George Street, Toronto, Ontario M5S 3H6, Canada

    • Rachelle M. Choueiri,
    • Elizabeth Galati,
    • Héloïse Thérien-Aubin,
    • Anna Klinkova,
    • Egor M. Larin,
    • Ana Querejeta-Fernández &
    • Eugenia Kumacheva

  2. Center for Functional Nanomaterials, Brookhaven National Laboratory, Upton, New York 11973, USA

    • Lili Han,
    • Huolin L. Xin &
    • Oleg Gang

  3. Institute of New Energy Materials, School of Materials Science and Engineering, Tianjin University, Tianjin 300072, China

    • Lili Han

  4. Institute of Macromolecular Compounds of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Saint Petersburg, 199004, Russia

    • Ekaterina B. Zhulina

  5. Saint Petersburg National University of Informational Technologies, Mechanics and Optics, Saint Petersburg, 197101, Russia

    • Ekaterina B. Zhulina

  6. Department of Chemistry, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, North Carolina 27599-3290, USA

    • Michael Rubinstein

  7. Institute of Biomaterials and Biomedical Engineering, University of Toronto, 4 Taddle Creek Road, Toronto, Ontario M5S 3G9, Canada

    • Eugenia Kumacheva

  8. Department of Chemical Engineering and Applied Chemistry, University of Toronto, 200 College Street, Toronto, Ontario M5S 3E5, Canada

    • Eugenia Kumacheva