Polymerizable ligands as stabilizers for nanoparticles

Abstract

Monomers bearing functional groups that can get chemisorbed on nanoparticles to form polymerizable monolayers have emerged as an interesting class of stabilizer ligands for various nanoparticles. High-surface coverage, their ability to modify the properties of underlying nanoparticles, capability to form polymers of different molecular weights and possibility to make structural modifications make them attractive for their use as stabilizer ligands for nanoparticles. Both in situ and post-synthesis grafting methods for attaching polymerizable ligands to nanoparticles are frequently used. The advantage of grafting polymerizable stabilizer on the surface of nanoparticles is that initially the polymerizable molecule acts as a proper stabilizer for the nanoparticles and later their surface polymerization or co-polymerization with another suitable monomer can be carried out to generate the desired polymer scaffold around the nanoparticles, which ensures the increased stability of the resulting core-polymerized shell nanoparticles. This review discusses interesting reports from recent literature on grafting of polymerizable ligands and their polymerization on gold, silver, silica, and iron oxide nanoparticles. In situ and post-synthesis surface modification of nanoparticles with polymerizable ligands is explained with examples of gold, silver, silica, and iron oxide nanoparticles. The importance of polymerizable ligands and polymers formed from them on the surface of the nanoparticles is discussed.