New approach for producing fluorescent gold nanoparticles: Poly(ethylene oxide) homopolymers as reductants in the micelles of amphiphilic fluorosilicone-containing block copolymers

Abstract

The reduction of gold salts by poly(ethylene oxide) (PEO) homopolymer is very slow and more than 2 days is needed to produce gold nanoparticles (AuNPs). In this work, however, AuNPs are rapidly produced in the micelles of novel amphiphilic poly[methyl(3,3,3-trifluoropropyl)siloxane]-b-poly(acrylic acid) (PMTFPS-b-PAA) block copolymers when using PEO as the reductant. Moreover, fluorescent AuNPs in the block copolymer micelles are presented by a direct monitoring of the micelle shape and the solution optical properties. Additional Supporting Information may be found in the online version of this article. Supplementary Information Supplementary Information Supplementary Information Please note: The publisher is not responsible for the content or functionality of any supporting information supplied by the authors. Any queries (other than missing content) should be directed to the corresponding author for the article.