Preparation and Self-Assembly of Dendronized Janus Fe3O4–Pt and Fe3O4–Au Heterodimers

Janus nanoparticles (NPs) often referred to as nanosized analogs of molecular surfactants are amphiphilic structures with potential applications in materials science, biomedicine, and catalysis, and their synthesis and self-assembly into complex architectures remain challenging. Here, we demonstrate the preparation of Janus heterodimers via asymmetric functionalization of Fe3O4–Pt and Fe3O4–Au heterodimeric NPs. The hydrophobic and hydrophilic dendritic ligands that carry phosphonic acid and disulfide surface binding groups selectively coat the iron oxide and platinum (or gold) parts of the heterodimer, respectively. Such an approach allows simple and efficient preparation of amphiphilic structures. Moreover, liquid–air interface self-assembly studies of each ligand exchange step revealed a drastic improvement in film crystallinity, suggesting the dendronization induced improvement of the whole particle polydispersity of the heterodimers.