Molecular recognition between functionalized gold nanoparticles and healable, supramolecular polymer blends – a route to property enhancement

Vaiyapuri, R., Greenland, B. W., Colquhoun, H. M., Elliott, J. E. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7469-4154 and Hayes, W. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0047-2991 (2013) Molecular recognition between functionalized gold nanoparticles and healable, supramolecular polymer blends – a route to property enhancement. Polymer Chemistry, 4. pp. 4902-4909. ISSN 1759-9954 doi: 10.1039/c3py00086a

Abstract/Summary

A new, healable, supramolecular nanocomposite material has been developed and evaluated. The material comprises a blend of three components: a pyrene-functionalized polyamide, a polydiimide and pyrenefunctionalized gold nanoparticles (P-AuNPs). The polymeric components interact by forming well-defined p–p stacked complexes between p-electron rich pyrenyl residues and p-electron deficient polydiimide residues. Solution studies in the mixed solvent chloroform–hexafluoroisopropanol (6 : 1, v/v) show that mixing the three components (each of which is soluble in isolation), results in the precipitation of a supramolecular, polymer nanocomposite network. The precipitate thus formed can be re-dissolved on heating, with the thermoreversible dissolution/precipitation procedure repeatable over at least 5 cycles. Robust, self-supporting composite films containing up to 15 wt% P-AuNPs could be cast from 2,2,2- trichloroethanol. Addition of as little as 1.25 wt% P-AuNPs resulted in significantly enhanced mechanical properties compared to the supramolecular blend without nanoparticles. The nanocomposites showed a linear increase in both tensile moduli and ultimate tensile strength with increasing P-AuNP content. All compositions up to 10 wt% P-AuNPs exhibited essentially quantitative healing efficiencies. Control experiments on an analogous nanocomposite material containing dodecylamine-functionalized AuNPs (5 wt%) exhibited a tensile modulus approximately half that of the corresponding nanocomposite that incorporated 5 wt% pyrene functionalized-AuNPs, clearly demonstrating the importance of the designed interactions between the gold filler and the supramolecular polymer matrix.

Item Type	Article
URI	https://reading-clone.eprints-hosting.org/id/eprint/33622
Identification Number/DOI	10.1039/c3py00086a
Refereed	Yes
Divisions	Interdisciplinary centres and themes > Chemical Analysis Facility (CAF) Life Sciences > School of Chemistry, Food and Pharmacy > Department of Chemistry Life Sciences > School of Chemistry, Food and Pharmacy > School of Pharmacy > Medicinal Chemistry Research Group
Publisher	Royal Society of Chemistry
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