Copolymerization of Metal Nanoparticles: A Route to Colloidal Plasmonic Copolymers

The resemblance between colloidal and molecular polymerization reactions has been recognized as a powerful tool for the fundamental studies of polymerization reactions, as well as a platform for the development of new nanoscale systems with desired properties. Future applications of colloidal polymers will require nanoparticle (NP) ensembles with a high degree of complexity that can be realized by hetero-assembly of NPs with different dimensions, shapes and compositions. In the present work, we have developed a method to apply strategies from molecular copolymerization to the co-assembly of gold nanorods with different dimensions into random and block copolymer structures (plasmonic copolymers). The approach was extended to the co-assembly of random copolymers of gold and palladium nanorods. A kinetic model validated and further expanded the kinetic theories developed for molecular copolymerization reactions