A general method to synthesis of amphiphilic colloidal nanoparticles of CdS and noble metals.

Amphiphilic colloids of CdS and noble metal nanoparticles, which can be dispersed both in water and organic solvents such as ethanol, N,N-dimethylformamide, chloroform, and toluene, are studied. The amphiphilic colloidal nanoparticles are synthesized by grafting the amphiphilic and thermoresponsive polymer of thiol-terminated poly(N-isopropylacrylamide) to CdS and noble metal nanoparticles. The size and morphology of the PNIPAM-grafted colloidal nanoparticles of CdS@PNIPAM can be tuned by changing the molar ratio of PNIPAM/CdS. The size of CdS@PNIPAM nanoparticles slightly decreases first from 5.5 to 4.4 nm then slightly increases from 4.4 to 6.1 nm with the decrease in the molar ratio from 1/1 to 1/10. Spherical nanoparticles of CdS@PNIPAM are synthesized at a higher molar ratio and worm-like nanoparticles are obtained at a lower molar ratio. The resultant PNIPAM-grafted colloidal nanoparticles of CdS@PNIPAM, Au@PNIPAM, Pd@PNIPAM, and Ag@PNIPAM are thermoresponsive in water and show a cloud-point temperature at about 32.5 degrees C.