Abstract
An experimental approach is presented for identifying the scaling laws for polymer chains grafted onto gold nanoparticles. Poly(ethylene oxide) of various molecular weights are grafted onto gold nanoparticles via thiol end-functional groups. The polymer-grafted nanoparticles are self-assembled into monolayers from solvents of different quality. Over a significant range of graft densities, nanoparticle monolayers deposited from good (athermal) solvent exhibit particle spacing that scales according to theoretical predictions for chains in dilute solution. This unexpected result for ordered nanoparticle monolayers is discussed in the context of the deposition process. In monolayers deposited from theta solvent, molecular weight scaling of particle spacing breaks down, possibly due to chain length dependence of solvent quality. In poor solvent, the structure of nanoparticle assemblies is not sufficiently ordered to obtain reliable measurements, possibly due to loss of nanoparticle dispersion. This approach opens up the possibility for accurate measurement of the effect of solvent on grafted chain scaling in nanoparticle assemblies.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Article number | 1700417 |
| Journal | Macromolecular Chemistry and Physics |
| Volume | 219 |
| Issue number | 8 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - Apr 2018 |
| Externally published | Yes |
Funding
The authors are indebted to Prof. Timothy Lodge for suggestion motivating this work. The authors thank Dr. Yifeng Su and Dr. Yan Xin for support in TEM at the National High Magnetic Field Laboratory. The authors thank Prof. Gang Chen for fruitful discussion on drop casting experimental design. The authors thank Prof. Rufina Alamo, Dr. Alexandros Chremos, Prof. Alexei Sokolov, and Dr. Jagjit Nanda for helpful discussions. G.Y. would like to thank the Advanced Short-Term Research Opportunity (ASTRO) Program mentored by Dr. Jagjit Nanda and the postdoc educational investment program managed by Dr. Jeremy T. Busby at the Material Science and Technology Division, Oak Ridge National Laboratory. This work was enabled by funding from the Council on Research and Creativity at Florida State University. TEM is supported by the National Science Foundation Cooperative Agreement Numbers DMR-1157490 and DMR-0654118, and the State of Florida.
| Funders | Funder number |
|---|---|
| State of Florida | |
| National Science Foundation | DMR-0654118, DMR-1157490 |
| Florida State University |
Keywords
- gold nanoparticles
- ligands
- monolayers
- polymer scaling law
- solvent quality