Vesicle-like assemblies of ligand-stabilized nanoparticles with controllable membrane composition and properties

Ji Eun Park, Myungjoo Seo, Eunseon Jang, Haein Kim, Jun Soo Kim, So Jung Park

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

14 Scopus citations

Abstract

Here, we report that nanoparticles modified with simple end-functionalized alkyl thiol ligands show interesting directional self-assembly behavior and can act as an effective surfactant to encapsulate other functional molecules and nanoparticles. Gold nanoparticles modified with the mixture of alkyl thiols and hydroxyl-terminated alkyl thiols organize into unique vesicle-like structures with controllable membrane thicknesses. Molecular dynamics simulations showed that the ligand segregation and the edge-to-edge ligand binding are responsible for the two-dimensional assembly formation. Furthermore, the nanoparticle assemblies can encapsulate other functional nanoparticles into the membrane or inside the cavity, generating multicomponent inorganic vesicles with various morphologies. The light-induced release profiles of encapsulated dye molecules showed that the membrane properties can be controlled by varying the membrane thickness and ligand composition.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)1837-1846
Number of pages10
JournalNanoscale
Volume11
Issue number4
DOIs
StatePublished - 28 Jan 2019

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
S.-J. P. acknowledges the financial support from the National Research Foundation of Korea grant funded by the Korea government (2018R1A2B3001049) and the support from the Science Research Center (SRC) funded by the National Research Foundation of Korea (2017R1A5A1015365). J. S. K. acknowledges the financial support from the National Research Foundation of Korea under Grant No 2018R1D1A1B07043246.

Publisher Copyright:
© The Royal Society of Chemistry.

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