Issue 35, 2014

Patchy nanoparticles self-assembled from linear triblock copolymers under spherical confinement: a simulated annealing study

Abstract

The self-assembly of linear ABC triblock copolymers confined in spherical nanopores is studied using a simulated annealing technique. Morphological phase diagrams as a function of the pore diameter, the selectivity of the pore-wall to the terminal blocks, and the copolymer composition are constructed. A variety of patchy nanoparticles and multiple morphological transitions are identified. Janus nanoparticles, which can be regarded as particles with one patch, are observed inside small nanopores. With increasing the pore diameter, the number of patches on a nanoparticle surface increases from one to two, four, five, six, and seven. The size of each patch increases periodically. The number of patches also increases with increasing the wall selectivity. The distribution of the patches on the surface of a given particle is highly symmetric. The interior structures of the patchy nanoparticles and the morphological transition are investigated by calculating the bridging fraction, the mean square end-to-end distance and the average contact number between different components. A series of entropy-driven morphological transitions is predicted. Furthermore, it is found that the overall patchy morphology is largely controlled by the volume fraction of the middle B-block, while the internal structure is largely controlled by the volume fraction ratio of the two terminal blocks. Our study demonstrates that the size of nanopores, the pore-wall selectivity, and the copolymer composition could be utilized as effective means to tune the structure and properties of the anisotropic nanoparticles.

Graphical abstract: Patchy nanoparticles self-assembled from linear triblock copolymers under spherical confinement: a simulated annealing study

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
05 May 2014
Accepted
02 Jul 2014
First published
02 Jul 2014

Soft Matter, 2014,10, 6831-6843

Author version available

Patchy nanoparticles self-assembled from linear triblock copolymers under spherical confinement: a simulated annealing study

B. Yu, J. Deng, B. Li and A. Shi, Soft Matter, 2014, 10, 6831 DOI: 10.1039/C4SM00967C

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