Illustration of one-dimensional nanoparticle shapes from inside cover of Angewandte Chemie Volume 56, Issue 44
October 23, 2017 (click to enlarge)
In recent decades, extensive studies have been devoted to assembling nanoparticles (NPs) into various ordered structures to achieve novel optical properties. It however still remains a challenging task to assemble NPs into cyclic one-dimensional (1D) shapes such as rings and frames. Researchers in Professor Christopher Li’s Soft Materials Group have demonstrated a directed assembly method to precisely assemble gold NPs (AuNP) into well-defined, free-standing frames using polymer single crystals (PSCs) as the template. By controlling the PSC growth, researchers were able to, for the first time, precisely tune both the size and width of the AuNP frame. These novel AuNP frames topologically resemble NP nanorings and cyclic polymer chains, and show unique Surface Plasmon Resonance (SPR) behaviors.
The group’s results, “Precisely Assembled Cyclic Gold Nanoparticle Frames via 2D Polymer Single Crystal Templating” were published in the prestigious chemistry journal Angewandte Chemie as a VIP paper in recognition of the work’s significance.