Precise control over the assembly of nanoparticles into desired ensembles with increased complexity and hierarchy is crucial in both fabricating new materials and discovering the unique collective properties of nanoparticles. Although much progress has been made to direct the assembly of nanoparticles into various larger structures with creative designs and feasibility, little progress has been made towards the controllable hierarchical assembly of nanoparticles into superstructures. Here, by tethering gold nanoparticles with functional block copolymers, we realize the step-wise assembly of hybrid building blocks into a class of well-ordered superstructures. In the first level assembly, a series of supracolloids with high yields were fabricated using a combination of binary hybrid building blocks. Then, their patchy surface, determined by the amphiphilic polymer blocks, was exploited to trigger their further assembly into hierarchical structures. Our approach also allows convenient control over the superstructures via tuning of the size of gold nanoparticles and amphiphilicity of supracolloids. This strategy provides a robust and efficient way to generate high-ordered superstructures which are difficult to obtain through traditional one step assemblies.

Hierarchical assembly of amphiphilic supracolloids with tunable patterns

254th National Meeting (2017)

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