In recent years, extensive efforts have been devoted to assembling nanoparticles into ordered structures such as 1D chains, 2D sheets, and 3D crystals. Numerous approaches have been reported. Functionalized polymers have been used to crystallize into a variety of patterns for nanoparticle assembly. In this presentation, we will discuss how polymer crystallization can be employed to direct nanoparticle assembly in situ. We will show that nanoparticles can play an integral role in polymer crystallization. Competition between polymer crystallization and nanoparticle close packing leads to a variety of new structures with broken translational symmetry. Furthermore, colloidosomes were successfully used as a unique template to tune polymer crystallization, leading to polymer crystalsomes. We, therefore, envisage that polymer crystallization provides a unique means to guide nanoparticle assembly for functional nanomaterials.

Polymer crystallization-driven nanoparticle assembly

ACS Fall 2021

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