Design and applications of gold nanoparticle/hydrogel composites with stimuli-responsive polymers

This Thesis describes the design, synthesis and applications of a series of gold nanoparticle-stimuli-responsive hydrogel nanocomposites. PFSs are a fascinating class of redox-active metallopolymers with a backbone consisting of alternating redox-active ferrocene and organosilane units. PFS-based redox-responsive hydrogels are used as foundry for the in-situ formation of gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) in this Thesis. Taking advantage of the combination of a thermo-responsive PNIPAM hydrogel and the photothermal effect of the AuNPs，the deformation and surface morphology changes of the hydrogel composites can be controlled by both temperature and light irradiation. By designing different anisotropic hydrogel structures, a variety of applications including wrinkling bilayers and actuators are explored in this Thesis. Regarding stoichiometry investigations, we considered the electrochemical redox process during AuNP formation and offer a model explaining the source of the electrons in addition to ferrocene.