Directed Self‐Assembly of Patchy Microgels into Anisotropic Nanostructures

Abstract

recent years, some DSA strategies have been developed. [4] The building blocks were organized into ordered structures indirectly using templates (e.g., DNA, [5] capillary, [6] topographically patterned substrates [7,8] ) or external fields (e.g., electric [9] and magnetic fields, [10] flow field [11] ). Besides, a rich interplay of multiple chemically distinct components and geometrical complexity of assembly units could be directly tailored to achieve the DSA behavior. Obviously, the latter is a simple and robust "bottom-up" way.The DSA process can be controlled precisely by the intrinsic characteristics of nanoparticles, like imparting directionality in molecular interactions and controlling particle geometry. Recent attention in particle design and synthesis has focused on the "patches" onto the particle surface to effectively regulate the interaction directionality. Soft patchy assemblies with different symmetries from triblock terpolymers could be further co-assembled into substructured and compartmentalized materials with predictable and tunable nanoscale periodicities. [12] Triblock Janus colloidal spheres with two hydrophobic poles and an electrically charged middle band were induced to form a complex predetermined colloidal crystal-kagome structure via the hydrophobic attraction and electrostatic repulsion. [13] By utilizing the anion-π interaction as the driving force, long-distance self-assembly with coherent particle formation was achieved, on which the cavity orientation of the bismacrocycle components had a significant influence. [14] On the basis of "patch" strategy, the geometry of nanoscale building blocks also plays key roles in the hierarchical assembly of ordered superstructures, especially for anisotropic nanoparticles with nonspherical shapes. [15] Patchy ellipsoidal polymer particles with sticky interactions near the tips were produced by the thermo/mechanical stretching and following wet chemical treatment. [16] The patchy, inverse pom-pom ellipsoids could interact directionally and self-assemble into chains or denser structures in bulk. Snowman-type Janus nanoparticles (JNPs) were used as a model to study the effect of colloidal geometries on their assembled superstructures. [17] Both finite (capsules with different curvatures) and nonfinite superstructures (free-standing single-layered or double-layered JNPs sheets) Multi-geometry nanostructures with high-order, complex, and controllable geometries have attracted extensive attention in the development of functional nanomaterials. A simple and versatile strategy is proposed to construct various anisotropic nanostructures through the directed self-assembly (DSA) of patchy microgels. A general criterion for interaction parameters is developed by the variance analysis method to achieve the formation of 1Dnanorods by the single directional DSA process, and 2D or 3D polymorphs including V/T/h/cross shapes, multiple arms, multi-directional bending, single/multiple rings, nanocages, etc., by the multi-directional DSA process of binary microgel b...

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