Self-assembly of ABC-type patchy nanoparticles formed by crosslinking triblock copolymer micelles

•The symmetric patchy nanoparticles can self-assemble into low-curvature structures such as layers and ribbons.•The increase in the A-to-C block length ratio can cause the formation of hierarchical assemblies with various curvatures.•One-dimensional growth of patchy nanoparticles follows the step-growth polymerization law. Hierarchical self-assembly is efficient in transferring functionality from small to large scales. Polymer nanoparticles with regularity are highly desirable because they are ideal units of hierarchical self-assembly. Herein, we proposed a crosslinking strategy for generating nanoparticles from ABC linear triblock copolymers and conducted a computational study on the self-assembly of the nanoparticles. The effect of nanoparticle symmetry on aggregation behaviors was examined. We found that the symmetric patchy nanoparticles can form various low-curvature aggregates tuned by the crosslinking numbers and A/C block lengths. Increasing the asymmetry of patchy nanoparticles causes the increased curvature of assemblies, forming well-defined structures such as loops, vesicles, and wavy ribbons. Furthermore, the self-assembly kinetics reveals a step-growth nature, resembling the step polymerization for one-dimensional growth. The work demonstrates that ABC-type polymeric nanoparticles are versatile units for building hierarchical assemblies, considerably enriching the self-assembly strategies. [Display omitted]