Beilstein J. Nanotechnol.2023,14, 52–60, doi:10.3762/bjnano.14.6
patch made of grafted polystyrene chains. The multistage synthesis allows for a fine control of the patch-to-particlesizeratio from 0.23 to 0.57. The assembly of the patchy nanoparticles can be triggered by reducing the solvent quality for the polystyrene chains. Dimers or trimers can be obtained by
tuning the patch-to-particlesizeratio. When mixed with two-patch nanoparticles, one-patch nanoparticles control the length of the resulting chains by behaving as colloidal chain stoppers. The present strategy allows for future elaboration of novel colloidal structures by controlled assembly of
nanoparticles.
Keywords: assembly; chain stopper; patchy nanoparticles; patch-to-particlesizeratio; self-assembly; Introduction
Colloidal engineering has become an enormous research endeavor, with a major focus placed on creating increasingly scalable smart particles, such that desired structures can be
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Figure 1:
Synthetic route for the preparation of 1-PSN with a controlled patch-to-particle size ratio.