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A Temperature‐Responsive Nanoreactor
Author(s) -
Li Songjun,
Ge Yi,
Tiwari Ashutosh,
Cao Shunsheng
Publication year - 2010
Publication title -
small
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 3.785
H-Index - 236
eISSN - 1613-6829
pISSN - 1613-6810
DOI - 10.1002/smll.201000956
Subject(s) - nanoreactor , nanoparticle , acrylamide , catalysis , reactivity (psychology) , polymer , materials science , dissociation (chemistry) , nanomaterials , chemical engineering , inverse temperature , nanotechnology , polymer chemistry , chemistry , copolymer , organic chemistry , thermodynamics , pathology , engineering , medicine , alternative medicine , physics , composite material
An originally designed temperature‐responsive nanoreactor is reported. The nanoreactor is made of Ag nanoparticles and a functional polymer composite of poly(acrylamide) (PAAm) and poly(2‐acrylamide‐2‐methylpropanesulfonic acid) (PAMPS). At a relatively low temperature (e.g., 20 °C), this nanoreactor displayed weak reactivity because of the interpolymer complexation between PAAm and PAMPS, which largely restricted the access of reactants to the encapsulated Ag nanoparticles. On the contrary, at a relatively high temperatures (e.g., 40 °C), the nanoreactor demonstrated significant catalytic activity resulting from the dissociation of the interpolymer complexation between PAAm and PAMPS, which allowed reactants to get access to the encapsulated Ag nanoparticles. By taking account of previously reported PNIPAm‐based nanoreactors, which show inverse temperature response, i.e., reactivity decreases whilst temperature increases, this temperature‐responsive nanoreactor would greatly facilitate and enrich the increasing studies on smart nanomaterials, generating numerous applications in a wide range of areas, such as catalysis and sensing.