Facile Synthesis of Gold-nanoparticles-decorated Polymer Assemblies and Core-Shell Gold Nanoparticles Using Pluronic Block Copolymers

Synthesis of gold nanoparticles （AuNPs） and Pluronic triblock copolymer composite in aqueous medium was studied. Gold-polymer nanocomposite with different structures was fabricated by tailoring the molar ratio of gold precursors to Pluronic P123 molecules or pH value of the P123 solution. When a lower volume ratio of [AuC14-]/[P123] （0.05） was employed at pH 11.1, a nanostmcture similar to plum pudding was obtained. AuNPs with an average diameter of 13.1 nm were embedded in Pluronic assemblies, and each one held about 21 single gold nanoparticles. When [AuCln-]/[P123] was increased to 0.1, core-shell structure was obtained if the pH value was in the range of 10.6-11.6, while gold polyhedra were fabricated when pH value was 8.1. Typical core-shell AuNPs had an average diameter of 9.6 nm with a narrow size distribution, while gold polyhedras with a mean diameter of 12.8 nm was obtained. The specific morphologies of the resultant nanocomposite were presumably obtained due to the synergistic interaction among the reactants.