Diselenide‐bearing crosslinked micelles‐reduced and stabilized gold nanoparticles in‐situ

Gold nanoparticles (GNPs), usually fabricated through reduction and stabilization two steps, have been widely used in biomedical field. Here, the six‐armed star copolymer was synthesized and self‐assembled into crosslinked micelles for the in‐situ preparation of GNPs in one‐step without external reductant. The copolymer and their precursors were synthesized by a combination of ring‐opening polymerization (ROP), activators regenerated by electron transfer atom transfer radical polymerization (ARGET ATRP), and Michael addition reaction. Their molecular weights and structures were measured by gel permeation chromatography (GPC) and 1H NMR. The diselenide bond of crosslinked micelles reduced AuCl4− to GNPs, and the crosslinked micelles stabilized the GNPs in‐situ. Through increasing AuCl4− concentration, the collision probability between the GNPs increased, with particle diameters of 1.5, 2.3, and 3.0 nm. Moreover, the GNPs showed good stability, and the wavelength of maximum absorbance (λmax) did not change under different dilution, temperature, and storage conditions. Furthermore, integrating dissipative particle dynamics (DPD) simulations and scripts with experiments, the formation process of crosslinked micelles, the stabilization process, and the size regulation of GNPs at mesoscopic scale were revealed. Therefore, this stable crosslinked micelles/GNPs hybrid material is expected to be used as a nanocarrier in an integrated diagnosis and treatment system. The [PCL‐(PHEMA‐SeSe~)‐PPEGMA]6 crosslinked micelles were latent reductants and stabilizers for the fabrication of gold nanoparticles (GNPs) owing to the diselenide bond which reduced the AuCl4− counterion to zerovalent gold in‐situ and then grew to final GNPs.