Hierarchical Polymer-Carbon Nanotube Hybrid Mesostructures by Crystallization-Driven Self-Assembly.

Multistep crystallization-driven self-assembly has great potential to enable the construction of sophisticated hybrid mesostructures. During the assembly procedure, each step modifies the properties of the overall structure. Here, we demonstrate the flexibility and efficiency of this approach by preparing polymer-carbon nanotube (CNT) hybrid mesostructures. We started by growing polyferrocenyldimethylsilane (PFS) homopolymer crystals onto multiwalled CNTs. This first step facilitated the redispersion of the coated CNTs in both polar (2-propanol) and nonpolar (decane) solvents. In the second step of hybrid construction, a unimer solution of a PFS block copolymer was added into the PFS-CNT solution. The PFS coating on the CNT initiated the growth of elongated micelles, resulting in structures that resembled hairy caterpillars. PFS-b-P2VP (P2VP = poly-2-vinylpyridine) micelles were grown from the surface of PFS-CNT hybrids in 2-propanol, and PFS-b-PI (PI = polyisoprene) micelles were grown from these hybrids in decane. These micelles, by transmission electron microscopy were seen to have an unusual wavy kinked structure, very different from the uniform smooth structures normally formed by both block copolymers. For hybrids with PFS-b-PI micelles, cross-linking of the micelle coronas locked the whole structure in place and allowed us to use the partial oxidation of PFS components to grow metal nanoparticles in the core of these micelles. We finally investigated the influence of the corona-forming block used to grow the micelles on the wettability of films made from these mesostructures. Films formed with CNT hybrids grafted with PFS-b-PI micelles were superhydrophobic (contact angle, 152°). In contrast, the surface of the films was much more hydrophilic (contact angle, 54°) when they were prepared from CNT hybrids grafted with PFS-b-P2VP micelles.

Single lipid bilayer deposition on polymer surfaces using bicelles.

A lipid bilayer was deposited on a 3 µm diameter polystyrene (PS) bead via hydrophobic anchoring of bicelles containing oxyamine-bearing cholesteric moieties reacting with the aldehyde functionalized bead surface. Discoidal bicelles were formed by mixing dimyristoylphosphatidylcholine (DMPC), dihexanoylphosphatidylcholine (DHPC), dimyristoyltrimethylammonium propane (DMTAP), and the oxyamine-terminated cholesterol derivative, cholest-5-en-3ß-oxy-oct-3,6-oxa-an-8-oxyamine (CHOLOA), in the molar ratio DMPC/DHCP/DMTAP/CHOLOA (1/0.5/0.01/0.05) in water. Upon exposure to aldehyde-bearing PS beads, a stable single lipid bilayer coating rapidly formed at the bead surface. Fluorescence recovery after photobleaching demonstrated that the deposited lipids fused into an encapsulating lipid bilayer. Electrospray ionization mass spectrometry showed that the short chain lipid DHPC was entirely absent from the PS adherent lipid coating. Fluorescence quenching measurements proved that the coating was a single lipid bilayer. The bicelle coating method is thus simple and robust, can be modified to include membrane-associated species, and can be adapted to coat any number of different surfaces.

Templated fabrication of fiber-basket polymersomes via crystallization-driven block copolymer self-assembly.

Immobilizing uniform nanostructures on a mesoscale substrate is a promising approach to prepare nanometer to micrometer sized materials with new functionalities. The hierarchical structures formed depend on both the nature of the substrate and the components deposited. In this paper, we describe the use of colloidal polystyrene microbeads as a sacrificial template to create a nanofibrous network coating consisting of elongated block copolymer micelles. This network has a secondary structure very different from that of conformal coatings obtained by other methods. In addition, the fibers of the network could be elongated by crystallization-driven self-assembly. The network was locked in place by cross-linking the micelles through in situ generation of small Pt nanoparticles. Subsequent removal of the sacrificial template gave an open vesicular structure. To demonstrate further transformation of the membrane, we showed that the cross-linked micelles could also be used to embed silver nanoparticles. The sacrificial template contained known amounts of Tb and Tm ions, allowing us to estimate via atomic mass spectrometry that 85% of the template surface was covered with micelle seeds. This approach to fabricating hierarchical coating structures expands the generality and scope of template-assisted synthesis to build advanced hierarchical materials with precise morphological control.