A general and robust strategy for in-situ templated synthesis of patterned inorganic nanoparticle assemblies

Precisely controlling the spatial organization of inorganic nanoparticles is essential for many applications, such as sensing, catalytic, and optical/electronic systems. Here, we describe a general and robust strategy to fabricate arbitrary quasi-two-dimensional (quasi-2D) nanoparticle assembly structures with tunable size and thickness on a substrate by using block copolymer brushes as the templates. To achieve this, patterned amphiphilic block copolymer brushes were first grown via light-mediated surface-initiated atom transfer radical polymerization. The hydrophilic polymer blocks could interact and enrich the inorganic precursors, and thus accelerate the in-situ growth of nanoparticles within the patterned hydrophilic polymer domains. In our method, the block copolymer template could strictly limit the vertical growth of quasi-2D nanoparticle assemblies to achieve thickness control in the nanometer scale. By changing the design of the photomask and experimental conditions for the light-mediated polymerization, quasi-2D inorganic nanoparticle assemblies with controllable shape and dimension can be feasibly obtained. Moreover, this method is also generally applicable to prepare various patterned inorganic nanoparticle assemblies with different compositions.

Automated summary

A general and robust strategy is described for fabricating arbitrary quasi-two-dimensional nanoparticle assembly structures with tunable size and thickness on a substrate using block copolymer brushes as templates. By growing patterned amphiphilic block copolymer brushes via light-mediated surface-initiated atom transfer radical polymerization, nanoparticles are accelerated to grow within the hydrophilic polymer domains. Changing the photomask design and experimental conditions allows for obtaining quasi-2D inorganic nanoparticle assemblies with controllable shape and dimension.