Copolymerization of Metal Nanoparticles: A Route to Colloidal Plasmonic Copolymers

The resemblance between colloidal and molecular polymerization reactions has been recognized as a powerful tool for the fundamental studies of polymerization reactions, as well as a platform for the development of new nanoscale systems with desired properties. Future applications of colloidal polymers will require nanoparticle (NP) ensembles with a high degree of complexity that can be realized by hetero-assembly of NPs with different dimensions, shapes and compositions. In the present work, we have developed a method to apply strategies from molecular copolymerization to the co-assembly of gold nanorods with different dimensions into random and block copolymer structures (plasmonic copolymers). The approach was extended to the co-assembly of random copolymers of gold and palladium nanorods. A kinetic model validated and further expanded the kinetic theories developed for molecular copolymerization reactions

Microfluidic Modeling of Cell Flow & Self-assembly of Gold Nanorods with Different Lengths

The thesis is divided into two parts: (1) microfluidic modeling of blood cell flow in constricted microvasculature and (2) the kinetic study of self-assembly of Au nanorods with different lengths. The passive mechanism of the flow of neutrophils was studied by using poly(dimethyl siloxane) microchannels with circular cross-sections as model blood vessels and agarose microgels as model cells. Their velocity and pressure profiles at various locations inside the microchannel with constrictions were studied as functions of (a) the initial velocity of the microgels, (b) the degree at which the channel-at-large tapered into the constriction, and (c) the size of microgels. Previously, our group proposed that the kinetics of self-assembly of Au nanorods resembles that of the reaction-controlled step-growth polymerization. To investigate factors that affect the reactivity of functional groups, self-assembly experiments were performed for nanorods with different lengths and their kinetics was analyzed.MAS