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Intern: Paul Kierstead, Chemistry, University of California, Santa Barbara Mentor: Kim van Berkel Faculty Supervisor: Craig Hawker Department: Materials

SYNTHESIS AND CORE VARIATION OF COMPOSITE POLYMER-METAL NANOPARTICLES

Inorganic nanoparticles have been shown to exhibit many appealing characteristics including catalytic, electronic, and optical properties. These particles have potential applications in sensor technology, biomedicine, and microscopic imaging. Significant advantages in these applications can be achieved by encapsulating the inorganic nanostructures in organic materials. A simple and scalable method has recently been developed to synthesize hybrid polymer-metal nanoparticles [1]. This method, based on miniemulsion polymerization, allows for the encapsulation of varying shapes, sizes, and types of inorganic nanostructures into composite nanoparticles. In this work, techniques have been developed to co-encapsulate two or more different inorganic materials within a single composite structure, yielding particles that display a combination of the desirable nanoparticle properties. [1] van Berkel, K.Y.; Hawker, C.J. Manuscript in Preparation

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