Gold nanoparticles with amphiphilic shells

ORGN 313

Eugene R. Zubarev and Jun Xu. Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Iowa State University, 3271 Gilman Hall, Ames, IA 50011
If methods were found to attach covalently a nanoparticle (NP) at the junction point connecting hydrophilic and hydrophobic blocks of an amphiphile, then the formation of micelles in selective solvents would confine NPs at the core-corona interface. This would provide a unique opportunity to assemble NPs into discrete well-defined arrays. Unfortunately, such hybrid structures are not known today. On the other hand, the spatial confinement of nonmetallic junction points takes place upon self-assembly of heteroarm star amphiphiles into supermicelles, as our previous study has shown. Therefore, a mere substitution of an organic core of a self-assembling heteroarm star by an NP may be used for their organization into different morphologies. Here we describe the synthesis of NPs with amphiphilic shells composed of Y-shaped fragments covalently attached to gold nanoparticles. Most importantly, we report on the first observation of amphiphilicity-driven self-assembly of NPs in selective solvents.
 

Molecular Recognition and Materials
8:00 AM-12:00 PM, Tuesday, August 24, 2004 Pennsylvania Convention Center -- 201B, Oral

Division of Organic Chemistry

The 228th ACS National Meeting, in Philadelphia, PA, August 22-26, 2004