Building Blocks Precisely from Polyhedral Oligomeric Silsesquioxane Nanoparticles

Hierarchical self-assembled structures provide a “bottom-up” method to utilize relatively simple and low cost processes to generate nanoscale patterns (usually through amphiphilic low molecular weight surfactants or block copolymers).1 These self-assembled structures from block copolymers are generally driven by a combination of repulsive and attractive interactions between the block segments and are inherently heterogeneous. Consequently, covalently bonded precursors are in high-demand to create well-defined self-assembled structures with prescribed molecular weights, low polydispersity, fixed compositions, available functional groups at chain ends, and structured topology.2,3 This month, the Cheng group reports their design for a synthetic method to prepare a series of giant surfactants with multiple precise polyhedral oligomeric silsesquioxane (POSS) nano-building blocks.