Abstract
The polymerization of elongated micellar structures offers a novel approach to the production of high aspect ratio, water-soluble amphiphilic nanoparticles. Three different surfactants were synthesized consisting of a cationic surfactant of the form (C XH 2X+1)trimethylammonium (where X = 14, 16, or 18) and a vinyl-containing counterion, 4-vinylbenzoate. The resulting polymer-surfactant aggregates have been polymerized to produce high aspect ratio nanoparticles which are insensitive to changes in solution conditions. The radius of the initial template is maintained on polymerization, whereas the template length is not. The aggregate radius is varied by changing the length of the surfactant tail, in this case producing aggregates with radii of 1.7, 2.0, or 2.4 nm. Variation of the initiator decomposition half-life, by means of using different initiators and varying temperature, is used to control the aggregate length between 80 and 500 nm. Through the process discussed here, both the radius and length of the aggregates are controlled independently.
| Original language | English (US) |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 941-948 |
| Number of pages | 8 |
| Journal | Langmuir |
| Volume | 22 |
| Issue number | 3 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - Jan 31 2006 |
| Externally published | Yes |
Bibliographical note
Funding Information:1 Financial assistance towards this research from the Andrew Mellon Foundation and the National Re-search Foundation Mentors’ is hereby acknowledged. Opinions expressed and conclusions arrived at are those of the author are not to be attributed to either Rhodes University or the donors.