Homopolymers as nanocarriers for the loading of block copolymer micelles with metal salts: a facile way to large-scale ordered arrays of transition-metal nanoparticles

摘要

Homopolymers as nanocarriers for the loading of block copolymer micelles with metal salts: a facile way to large-scale ordered arrays of transitionmetal nanoparticlesLianchen Shan,1 Sathya Punniyakoti,1 Margriet J. Van Bael,2 Kristiaan Temst,3 Marlies K. Van Bael,4 Xiaoxing Ke,5 Sara Bals,5 Gustaaf Van Tendeloo,5 Marc D'Olieslaeger,1,6 Patrick Wagner,1,6 Ken Haenenaf and Hans-Gerd Boyen*1,6[ 1 ] Hasselt Univ, Inst Mat Res IMO, B-3590 Diepenbeek, Belgium[ 2 ] Katholieke Univ Leuven, Lab Solid State Phys & Magnetism, B-3001 Louvain, Belgium[ 3 ] Katholieke Univ Leuven, Inst Kern Stralingsfys, B-3001 Louvain, Belgium[ 4 ] Hasselt Univ, Inst Mat Res, B-3590 Diepenbeek, Belgium[ 5 ] Univ Antwerp, Electron Microscopy Mat Res EMAT, B-2020 Antwerp, Belgium[ 6 ] Imec Vzw Div IMOMEC, B-3590 Diepenbeek, BelgiumA new and facile approach is presented for generating quasi-regular patterns of transition metal-based nanoparticles on flat substrates exploiting polystyrene-block-poly2vinyl pyridine (PS-b-P2VP) micelles as intermediate templates. Direct loading of such micellar nanoreactors by polar ransition metal salts in solution usually results in nanoparticle ensembles exhibiting only short range order accompanied by broad distributions of particle size and inter-particle distance. Here, we demonstrate that the use of P2VP homopolymers of appropriate length as molecular carriers to transport precursor salts into the micellar cores can significantly increase the degree of lateral order within the final nanoparticle arrays combined with a decrease in spreading in particle size. Thus, a significantly extended range of materials is now available which can be exploited to study fundamental properties at the transition from clusters to solids by means of well-organized, well-separated, size-selected metal and metal oxide nanostructures.