Synthesis of Sulfur-Rich Nanoparticles with Sulfur/Thiophene-Based Cross-Linked Cores

Abstract

Sulfur-rich polymeric nanoparticles (S-NPs) in which the core was cross-linked using thiophene-based cross-linking agents and sulfur were synthesized from the amphiphilic block copolymer, by site-selective cross-linking reaction. The amphiphilic block copolymer; Poly(PEGMA)-b-poly(DB3VT) was synthesized by RAFT polymerization. DLS measurement demonstrated the formation of stable S-NPs with uniform sized, which can be controlled by the amount of the cross-linking agents and reaction conditions (D h = 110 nm, 150 nm in THF). UV-vis, fluorescence, and CV measurements led to the optical and electrochemical properties defined from polysulfide and oligothiophene. It was also suggested that HOMO and LUMO can be controlled by changing the cross-linking agent. Figure 1