Solvent-induced Division of Plasmonic Clusters

What is it about?

Self-organization of organic/inorganic matter is a fundamental step toward novel materials with life-like characteristics. In this article we reported on copolymer micelles loaded with gold nanoparticles, which spontaneously undergo division at specific solvent composition. Structural changes of the polymeric micelles revealed that micelles undergo fission to produce smaller units with homogenously distributed plasmonic particles.

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Why is it important?

This system is a suitable experimental model for future studies on fundamental understanding of dynamic self-assembly processes and for design of adaptive materials with biomedical relevance.