Journal
SCIENCE
Volume 329, Issue 5988, Pages 197-200Publisher
AMER ASSOC ADVANCEMENT SCIENCE
DOI: 10.1126/science.1189457
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Funding
- National Science and Engineering Research Council of Canada
- NSF [CHE-0911588, DMR-0907515, CBET-0609087]
- NIH [1-R01-HL077546-03A2]
- Direct For Mathematical & Physical Scien
- Division Of Chemistry [0911588] Funding Source: National Science Foundation
- Division Of Materials Research
- Direct For Mathematical & Physical Scien [0907515] Funding Source: National Science Foundation
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Self-organization of nanoparticles is an efficient strategy for producing nanostructures with complex, hierarchical architectures. The past decade has witnessed great progress in nanoparticle self-assembly, yet the quantitative prediction of the architecture of nanoparticle ensembles and of the kinetics of their formation remains a challenge. We report on the marked similarity between the self-assembly of metal nanoparticles and reaction-controlled step-growth polymerization. The nanoparticles act as multifunctional monomer units, which form reversible, noncovalent bonds at specific bond angles and organize themselves into a colloidal polymer. We show that the kinetics and statistics of step-growth polymerization enable a quantitative prediction of the architecture of linear, branched, and cyclic self-assembled nanostructures; their aggregation numbers and size distribution; and the formation of structural isomers.
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