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Thermosensitive Nanostructures Comprising Gold Nanoparticles Grafted with Block Copolymers
Author(s) -
Li D.,
Cui Y.,
Wang K.,
He Q.,
Yan X.,
Li J.
Publication year - 2007
Publication title -
advanced functional materials
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 6.069
H-Index - 322
eISSN - 1616-3028
pISSN - 1616-301X
DOI - 10.1002/adfm.200700427
Subject(s) - copolymer , materials science , atom transfer radical polymerization , ethylene glycol , polymer chemistry , nanoparticle , methacrylate , polymer , nanocomposite , nanostructure , chemical engineering , colloidal gold , polymerization , nanotechnology , composite material , engineering
Binary thermosensitive nanocomposites are fabricated by grafting block copolymers of poly( N ‐isopropylacrylamide) and poly(methoxy‐oligo(ethylene glycol) methacrylate) onto gold nanoparticles through consecutive, surface‐initiated, atom‐transfer radical polymerization (ATRP). These Au@copolymer nanocomposites display a well‐defined core/shell nanostructure and have two thermosensitive points near 33 and 55 °C in an aqueous suspension corresponding to the thermally induced conformational transition of inner homopolymer segments and outer oligo(ethylene glycol)‐containing copolymer layer, respectively. Silver nanoparticles trapped within Au@copolymer nanocomposites with weakly crosslinked shells display thermally modulated catalytic activity as heterogeneous catalysts because of the thermosensitive collapse of the polymer layers.