Research

Nano-Bio Materials Laboratory

Research Highlight

Nanoparticle-Directed Self-Assembly of Block Copolymers

Superparamagnetic Polymersomes

The incorporation of nanoparticles induce interesting morphology changes in self-assembly of amphiphilic polymers. For example, we have fabricated polymersomes densely packed with magnetic nanoparticles through cooperative self-assembly of nanoparticles and micelle-forming polymers. The superparamagnetic polymersomes exhibited significantly enhanced magnetic relaxivity than typical micellar structures. [Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2007, 46, 48, 9235–9238, JACS, 2011, 133, 1517-1525, ACS Nano, 2013, 7, 5824, ACS Nano. 2014, 8, 495–502.]

Nanoporous Films

We investigated self-assembly of nanoparticles and block copolymers at the air-water interface, which led to the formation of highly uniform composite films with interesting nanoscale porous structures. [ACS Nano, 2020, 14, 12203.]