Patchy and Janus Nanoparticles by Self-Organization of Mixtures of Fluorinated and Hydrogenated Alkanethiolates on the Surface of a Gold Core.
The spontaneous self-organization of dissimilar ligands on the surface of metal nanoparticles is a very appealing approach to obtain anisotropic "spherical" systems. In addition to differences in ligand length and end groups, a further thermodynamic driving force to control the self-assembled monolayer organization may become available if the ligands are inherently immiscible, as is the case of hydrogenated (H-) and fluorinated (F-) species. Here, we validate the viability of this approach by combining19F NMR experiments and multiscale molecular simulations on large sets of mixed-monolayer-protected gold nanoparticles (NPs). The phase segregation of blends of F- and H-thiolates grafted on the surface of gold NPs allows a straightforward approach to patterned mixed monolayers, with the shapes of the monolayer domains being encoded in the structure of the F/H-thiolate ligands. The results obtained from this comprehensive study offer molecular design rules to achieve a precise control of inorganic nanoparticles protected by specifically patterned monolayers.
Maria
M
Şologan
Domenico
D
Marson
Department of Molecular Sciences and Nanosystems, University Ca' Foscari of Venezia , via Torino 155/b, I-30172 Venezia-Mestre, Italy.
Stefano
S
Polizzi
Paolo
P
Pengo
Silvia
S
Boccardo
Sabrina
S
Pricl
Paola
P
Posocco
Lucia
L
Pasquato
NMR; anisotropic nanoparticles; gold nanoparticles; multiscale molecular modeling; phase segregation; self-assembly