Self-assembled nanoparticles of functional copolymers for photonic applications

Iole Venditti; Ilaria Fratoddi; Christian Palazzesi; Paolo Prosposito; Mauro Casalboni; Cesare Cametti; Chiara Battocchio; Giovanni Polzonetti; Maria Vittoria Russo

doi:10.1016/j.jcis.2010.04.061

Self-assembled nanoparticles of functional copolymers for photonic applications

J Colloid Interface Sci. 2010 Aug 15;348(2):424-30. doi: 10.1016/j.jcis.2010.04.061. Epub 2010 Apr 28.

Authors

Iole Venditti¹, Ilaria Fratoddi, Christian Palazzesi, Paolo Prosposito, Mauro Casalboni, Cesare Cametti, Chiara Battocchio, Giovanni Polzonetti, Maria Vittoria Russo

Affiliation

¹ Dept. of Chemistry, University of Rome Sapienza, P.le A. Moro, 5, 00185 Rome, Italy. iole.venditti@uniroma1.it

PMID: 20471027
DOI: 10.1016/j.jcis.2010.04.061

Abstract

A modified emulsion copolymerization of phenylacetylene (PA) with hydrophilic monomers having different functions, i.e., acrylic acid (AA) and N,N-dimethylpropargylamine (DMPA) respectively, yields functionalized polymeric P(PA-co-AA) and P(PA-co-DMPA) nanoparticles. The systematic investigation on the experimental parameters affecting size, surface charge and polydispersity of the copolymers (initiator concentration, reaction time, cosolvent and PA/comonomer ratios) allows to modulate the nanoparticle physico-chemical properties. Spherical shaped particles with diameters in the range 80-500 nm, low polydispersity (PI values in the range 1.11-1.30) and different surface charge densities, between 0.44 and 2.87 microC/cm(2), have been consistently obtained and characterized by means of Dynamic Light Scattering (DLS), laser Doppler electrophoretic and Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) studies. XPS measurements have provided information on the nanoparticles chemical surface structure and suggest that AA and DMPA units are preferentially distributed on the surface of the spheres. The nanospheres self-assemble giving large domains (9.5 x 14.5 microm). Photonic analysis of the self-assembled copolymeric nanoparticles has been performed by means of Spectroscopic Ellipsometry (SE) and Bragg reflection spectroscopy, both of them demonstrating a three-dimensional photonic crystal property of these systems.