Linear assembly of two-patch silica nanoparticles and control of chain length by coassembly with colloidal chain stoppers

Bin Liu (1, 2) , Weiya Li (1, 2) , Etienne Duguet (2) , Serge Ravaine (1)

1 CRPP - Centre de Recherche Paul Pascal
2 ICMCB - Institut de Chimie de la Matière Condensée de Bordeaux

Self-assembly of patchy nano-sized building blocks is an efficient strategy for producing highly organized materials. Herein, we report the chaining of divalent silica nanoparticles with polystyrene patches dispersed in THF triggered by lowering the solvent quality. We study the influence of the patch-to-particle size ratio and show that the nature of the added nonsolvent, e.g. ethanol, water or salty water, and its volume fraction shall be carefully adjusted. We demonstrate that colloidal assembly initially obeys the kinetic model of step-growth polymerization and that beyond a certain length the chains have the possibility to cyclize. We also show that the length of the chains can be controlled by the addition of one-patch silica nanoparticles, which act as colloidal analogues of chain stoppers.

Mots clés: Colloidal polymers; Nanoparticles; Patchy; Self-assembly; Chain stoppers

Domaines: Matériaux

Bin Liu, Weiya Li, Etienne Duguet, Serge Ravaine. Linear assembly of two-patch silica nanoparticles and control of chain length by coassembly with colloidal chain stoppers. ACS Macro Letters, 2022, 11 (1), pp.156-160. ⟨10.1021/acsmacrolett.1c00699⟩. ⟨hal-03514046⟩