Building triangular nanoprisms from the bottom-up: a polyelectrolyte micellar approach

Abstract

Charge-regulated synthesis of triangular prisms in aqueous solution using self-assembled polyelectrolyte micelles as templates is described in detail. Micelles formed from amphiphilic polystyrene-block-sulfonated poly(1,3-cyclohexadiene) (PS-b-sPCHD) serve as templates to direct the formation of novel triangular prisms of CuCl₂ single crystals. We demonstrate that the edge lengths of these triangular prisms can be easily tailored at room temperature from the nanoscale to the mesoscale by simply adjusting the ratio of charged micelles to protons in the solution. This approach can be extended to the preparation of different ordered crystal structures with a precision hard to achieve via other approaches.