Issue 7, 2008
From the journal:

Journal of Materials Chemistry

Loading quantum dots into thermo-responsive microgels by reversible transfer from organic solvents to water†‡

Lei Shen,ab   Andrij Pich,ac   Daniele Fava,a   Mingfeng Wang,a   Sandeep Kumar,a   Chi Wu,bd   Gregory D. Scholes*a  and  Mitchell A. Winnik*a  

* Corresponding authors

a Department of Chemistry, University of Toronto, 80 St. George Street, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
E-mail: mwinnik@chem.utoronto.ca, gscholes@chem.utoronto.ca
Fax: +1 416-978-0541

b The Hefei National Laboratory for Physical Sciences at Microscale, Department of Chemical Physics, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, Anhui, China

c Department of Macromolecular Chemistry and Textile Chemistry, Technische Universität Dresden, Dresden, Germany

d Department of Chemistry, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shatin, N. T, Hong Kong

Abstract

We describe a new method for the preparation of fluorescent inorganic-nanoparticle composite microgels. Copolymer microgels with functional pendant groups were transferred viadialysis into tetrahydrofuran (THF) solution and mixed with colloidal solutions of semiconductor nanocrystals (quantum dots, QDs). CdSe QDs stabilized with trioctylphosphine oxide (TOPO) became incorporated into the microgels via ligand exchange of pendant imidazole (Im) groups for TOPO. PbS QDs stabilized with oleic acid were incorporated into microgels with pendant –COOH groups. This approach worked equally well with microgels based upon poly(N-isopropylacrylamide) (PNIPAM) and those based upon an acetoacetylethyl methacrylate-N-vinylcaprolactam copolymer (PVCL). These composite hybrid materials were colloidally stable in THF, and maintained their colloidal stability after transfer to water, either viadialysis or by sedimentation–redispersion. In water, the composites exhibited similar thermal responsiveness to the parent microgels, with a small shift to lower temperature in the volume phase transition. This approach allows one to use inorganic nanoparticles synthesized under optimum conditions in organic media at high temperature and to prepare composite microgels directly by mixing the components in a water-miscible organic solvent.

Graphical abstract: Loading quantum dots into thermo-responsive microgels by reversible transfer from organic solvents to water

About
Cited by
Related
Download options Please wait...

Supplementary files

Article information

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1039/B713253K
Article type
Paper
Submitted
28 Aug 2007
Accepted
19 Dec 2007
First published
15 Jan 2008

J. Mater. Chem., 2008,18, 763-770

Permissions

Request permissions

Loading quantum dots into thermo-responsive microgels by reversible transfer from organic solvents to water

L. Shen, A. Pich, D. Fava, M. Wang, S. Kumar, C. Wu, G. D. Scholes and M. A. Winnik, J. Mater. Chem., 2008, 18, 763 DOI: 10.1039/B713253K

To request permission to reproduce material from this article, please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

If you are an author contributing to an RSC publication, you do not need to request permission provided correct acknowledgement is given.

If you are the author of this article, you do not need to request permission to reproduce figures and diagrams provided correct acknowledgement is given. If you want to reproduce the whole article in a third-party publication (excluding your thesis/dissertation for which permission is not required) please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

Read more about how to correctly acknowledge RSC content.

Spotlight

Advertisements