ABSTRACT

Block copolymer-assisted sol-gel templating is a simple, flexible and highly versatile strategy to fabricate novel multifunctional nanostructured materials. Co-assembly processes utilizing the selective interactions of amphiphilic block copolymers with inorganic nanoparticles have applied toward structure directing of a broad range of well-defined nanostructured hybrid materials. This versatile strategy is a powerful tool to design tailor-made advanced multifunctional materials with different combinations of properties by playing with block copolymer (by changing the molecular weight, volume fraction or solution conditions) and inorganic component (size, type, amount), as well as with the ratio between both components. This opens up a large number of possibilities with widespread field of applications.