Nanocomposites and nanomaterials
Monodomains made of liquid-crystalline metal nanoparticles
Bagiński M.1, Tupikowska M.1, Lewandowski W.
1 University of Warsaw, Faculty of Chemistry, Pasteura 1 Street, 02-093 Warsaw, Poland. 
E-mail: mbaginski@chem.uw.edu.pl
    Active plasmonic materials made of metal nanoparticles are in the center of interest of many scientists, due to potential applications as metamaterials or in nanoelectronics. Our previous studies [1,2] show that by covering nanoparticles surface with properly designed liquid-crystalline ligands it is possible to obtain materials which structure and their physical and chemical properties can be dynamically controlled by temperature changes.
In our current studies we have been preparing spherical gold and silver nanoparticles (with diameters 2-5 nm). Their surface is partically coated with properly designed liquid-crystalline ligand. It causes that nanoparticles can self-assemble into monodomains consisted of layrs (Fig.1). Importantly, by changing conditions during sample preparation, we are able to obtain monodomains with various average area.

Figure 1. TEM images of monodomains made of spherical gold nanoparticles.

1.	Bagiński M., Tomczyk E., Vetter A., Suryadharma R., Rockstuhl C., Lewandowski W. Achieving highly stable, reversibly reconfigurable plasmonic nanocrystal superlattices through the use of semifluorinated surface ligands. Chem. Mater. 2018, 30, 8201–8210.
2.	Bagiński, M.; Szmurło, A.; Andruszkiewicz, A.; Wójcik, M.; Lewandowski, W. Dynamic Self-Assembly of Nanoparticles Using Thermotropic Liquid Crystals. Liq. Cryst. 2016, 43 (13–15), 2391–2409.

The research is conducted under Reinforce project carried out within the First Team programme of the Foundation for Polish Science co-financed by the European Union under the European Regional Development Fund.