Pré-Publication, Document De Travail Année : 2025

Supramolecular silver nanoparticle hydrogels with controlled nanoparticle size and order

Résumé

Nanoparticle-gel hybrid systems are promising multifunctional materials combining the unique properties of metal nanoparticles with the structural versatility of hydrogels. They find application in a wide range of advanced technologies, including controlled drug delivery, sensing, flexible electronics and tissue engineering. Incorporation of metal nanoparticles (NPs) into a gel matrix offers structural confinement and spatial distribution of the nanoparticles, but the control over the size, size distribution, and spatial organization within the gel remains a major challenge, yet it is essential to optimize the smart properties required for advanced applications. Here, we show that silver nanoparticles of controlled size (diameter of 2.8 ± 0.4 nm) can form two-dimensional arrays of long-range order co-aligned with self-assembled fibers composed of a bio-based bolaamphiphile glycolipid containing a single glucose headgroup opposite to a free carboxylic acid end-group. The straightforward self-assembly of the glycolipid with silver ions in water, followed by reduction, generates a silver nanoparticle hydrogel with an impressive order of nanoparticles. This process of stunning simplicity and enhanced sustainability is shown here by using and comparing various reduction methods (chemical, photochemical, and radiolytic) as well as by tuning the nature of the silver precursor. gel provides structural confinement, facilitating the spatial organization of the NPs, the latter, in turn, can enhance both the mechanical and functional properties of the hybrid gel 4 . This approach makes hybrid NPs-gel composites great candidates for smart advanced materials with applications in diverse fields such as controlled drug delivery, sensing, electronics, catalysis, tissue engineering, and much more 3,5 . The chemical nature of both the NPs and the matrix is generally related to the optimization of the final properties. NPs can be composed of metal or metal oxides, 4 while the gel matrix is historically composed of macromolecules and more recently of low-molecular-weight gelators (LMWGs) 6 . However, the major challenge remains the precise control over the size, morphology, and spatial organization of the NPs within the gel matrix, a critical step for optimizing the properties 7 .

Compared to macromolecules, LMWGs attract more and more attention for the matrix development, as they are characterized by a fast and stimuli-responsive sol-gel transition process, known to form three-dimensional networks of infinitely long self-assembled fibers with nanometer-scale cross-section. Such systems revealed to be excellent candidates to host metal nanoparticles with controlled size, shape, distribution, and spatial arrangement, 8 potentially preventing the uncontrolled aggregation of NPs. 9

Hybrid gels composed of NPs and LMWG are synthesized through either an ex-situ or in-situ methodology. 1 The ex-situ approach consists in integrating preformed NPs into a gel

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Dates et versions

hal-05080276 , version 1 (22-05-2025)

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  • HAL Id : hal-05080276 , version 1

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Korin Gasia Ozkaya, Hynd Remita, Isabelle Lampre, Niki Baccile. Supramolecular silver nanoparticle hydrogels with controlled nanoparticle size and order. 2025. ⟨hal-05080276⟩
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