Multicompartmentalized Micellar Structures by Gold Nanoparticles Grafted with Diblock-Copolymer Ligands.

We study the formation of hybrid polymer/inorganic colloidal particles with multicompartmentalized structure, comprising gold nanoparticles grafted with polystyrene-block-poly(methacrylic acid) (PSt-block-PMAA) diblock copolymer ligands, through experiments and molecular dynamics simulations. The PMAA blocks segregate into small satellite-like domains that are separated by the polystyrene spacer from the gold nanoparticle core. Dialysis against water leads to the re-configuration of the formed structures into unique, kinetically trapped pinned-micelle-decorated nanoparticles with internal structure.