Stars, combs and bottlebrushes of elastic single-chain nanoparticles

Abstract

Hierarchical self-assembly of structural elements gives rise to superstructures often with outstanding properties when compared to individual elements, as first observed in nature. While folding of individual synthetic chains leads to discrete single-chain nanoparticles (SCNPs) of significant interest for a number of applications, its full potential utility through integration into well-defined superstructures is recently being recognized. Remarkably, SCNPs in good solvent resemble randomly branched polymers with ideal connectivity in a theta-solvent or percolating clusters with screened excluded-volume interactions. Herein we consider the integration of SCNPs into star, comb and bottlebrush topologies and investigate the dimensions of the resulting superstructures under different conditions (good solvent, ideal conformations, 1D- and 2D-confinement in nanopores and nanoslits, anchored to flat surfaces). A detailed comparison of the equilibrium conformational properties of star, comb and bottlebrush polymers composed of elastic SCNPs to those of equivalent topologies based on linear chains is provided. This analysis reveals the effect of hierarchical topology on superstructure dimensions in several relevant environments, as well as how the structural parameters of the SCNPs influence the location of the comb-to-bottlebrush transition as a function of grafting density. The degree of intra-chain cross-linking arises as an additional parameter for controlling the local and global dimensions of stars, combs and bottlebrushes of SCNPs.