Preparation of conducting core-shell nanoparticles based on dendritic hexadecaaniline-C60-poly(dimethylsiloxane) conjugates

A new class of macromolecular core-shell-like elastomeric conducting nanoparticles based on triblock (A16)5-C60-PDMS-C60-(A16)5 analogous dendritic structure were fabricated using flexible poly(dimethylsiloxane) (PDMS) as the elastomeric segment in linking with conducting C60-(hexadecaaniline)5 [C60(A16)5] subunits. In polar solvents, the PDMS segments coagulated into nanosized particles encapsulated with self-assembled C60(A16)5 shell. Spherical particles in a diameter of 50-80 nm were achieved and observed in scanning electron micrographs.