Issue 18, 2013

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

Abstract

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 pyrene-functionalized gold nanoparticles (P-AuNPs). The polymeric components interact by forming well-defined π–π stacked complexes between π-electron rich pyrenyl residues and π-electron deficient polydiimide residues. Solution studies in the mixed solvent chloroformhexafluoroisopropanol (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.

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

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
18 Jan 2013
Accepted
02 Mar 2013
First published
04 Mar 2013
This article is Open Access
Creative Commons BY license

Polym. Chem., 2013,4, 4902-4909

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

R. Vaiyapuri, B. W. Greenland, H. M. Colquhoun, J. M. Elliott and W. Hayes, Polym. Chem., 2013, 4, 4902 DOI: 10.1039/C3PY00086A

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