Janus gold nanoparticle with bicompartment polymer brushes templated by polymer single crystals

Janus particles have attracted increasing attention from the communities of materials science, chemistry, physics and biology. While large size Janus particles are readily achieved, synthesizing Janus nanoparticles (JNP) with diameters smaller than ∼20 nm remains a challenging task. In this article, we report a systematic study on growing polymer brushes on polymer-single-crystal-immobilized 6 and 15 nm diameter gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) using atom transfer radical polymerization. JNPs with bicompartment polymer brushes, such as poly(ethylene oxide) (PEO)/poly(methyl methacrylate), PEO/poly(tert-butyl acrylate), and PEO/poly(acrylic acid), were synthesized. The grafting densities can be carefully controlled. The Janus feature of these particles was confirmed using both platinum nanoparticle decoration and UV/Vis spectroscopy analysis. The surface plasmon resonance absorbance of Janus particles exhibited a blue shift compared with that of symmetric AuNPs with either homopolymer or mixed polymer brushes. This work demonstrated that using polymer single crystal as the templates, small size (<20 nm diameter) JNPs having bicompartment polymer brushes can be readily obtained. The ability to tune grafting density and molecular weight of polymer brushes can lead to controlled particle amphiphilicity.