Organic Nanoparticles with Tunable Size and Rigidity by Hyperbranching and Cross-linking Using Microemulsion ATRP

Overview

Journal Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A

Specialty Science

Date 2024 Jul 10

PMID 38985759

Authors

Rongguan Yin

Jirameth Tarnsangpradit

Akhtar Gul

Jaepil Jeong

Xiaolei Hu

Yuqi Zhao

Hanshu Wu

Qiqi Li

George Fytas

Alamgir Karim

Michael R Bockstaller

Krzysztof Matyjaszewski

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Unlike inorganic nanoparticles, organic nanoparticles (oNPs) offer the advantage of "interior tailorability," thereby enabling the controlled variation of physicochemical characteristics and functionalities, for example, by incorporation of diverse functional small molecules. In this study, a unique inimer-based microemulsion approach is presented to realize oNPs with enhanced control of chemical and mechanical properties by deliberate variation of the degree of hyperbranching or cross-linking. The use of anionic cosurfactants led to oNPs with superior uniformity. Benefitting from the high initiator concentration from inimer and preserved chain-end functionality during atom transfer radical polymerization (ATRP), the capability of oNPs as a multifunctional macroinitiator for the subsequent surface-initiated ATRP was demonstrated. This facilitated the synthesis of densely tethered poly(methyl methacrylate) brush oNPs. Detailed analysis revealed that exceptionally high grafting densities (~1 nm) were attributable to multilayer surface grafting from oNPs due to the hyperbranched macromolecular architecture. The ability to control functional attributes along with elastic properties renders this "bottom-up" synthetic strategy of macroinitiator-type oNPs a unique platform for realizing functional materials with a broad spectrum of applications.

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