Hairy polymer nanofibers via self-assembly of block copolymers

We demonstrate a simple approach to prepare hairy polymer nanorods/nanofibres by exploiting the self-assembly behavior of block copolymers. The hairy nanofibres were prepared from an asymmetric polystyrene-block-poly(4-vinylpyridine) (PS-b-P4VP) block copolymer whose self-assembled morphology consisted of PS cylinders dispersed in P4VP matrix. The dissolution of the block copolymer in a P4VP selective solvent resulted in the isolation of individual PS cylinders wrapped with a shell consisting of covalently bound P4VP chains. The diameter of these hairy nanofibres was similar to 80 nm, whereas the length was in the range of several hundred nanometers. We further show that such hairy nanofibres provide interesting possibilities for doing further chemistry on their surface. This, in principle, allows one to prepare a range of functional hybrid organic/inorganic nanofibres of diameter less than 100 nm using the hairy polymer nanofibres as template. The organic fraction of the nanofibres can then be further removed by thermal treatment to produce pure inorganic nano-objects.