FIRST BOOK ON SINGLE-CHAIN POLYMER NANOPARTICLES

In the Nanotechnology era, many methods for synthesis of materials with well-defined nanoscale dimensions (1 nm = 10^-9 m) have been developed. As a remarkable example, excellent size and shape control has been achieved for the synthesis of hard nanoparticles, such as quantum dots, gold nanoclusters or metal oxide nanoparticles. Similar control to produce soft nanoparticles based on polymers with dimensions below 10 nm has not been possible until just the beginning of the 21st Century. Advances in the synthesis of well-defined functional polymers through living radical polymerization processes, post-functionalization techniques, as well as the development of highly-efficient intra-chain coupling reactions have paved the way to the reliable production of single-chain polymer nanoparticles.

José A. Pomposo (IKERBASQUE Research Professor at Polymers & Soft Matter Group, CFM)

Since 2001, this new topic has grown so rapidly and to such an extent, that it was time to summarize, condense and comprehensively present all this new generated knowledge. That was precisely the reason of this book edited by IKERBASQUE Research Professor José A. Pomposo (Polymers & Soft Matter Group at CFM) the first one specifically devoted to the synthesis, characterization, simulations and applications of single-chain polymer nanoparticles as versatile soft nano-objects with potential applications in many fields, from catalysis to nanomedicine. The book, which is divided in 9 Chapters, aims to provide an essential overview of this evolving field and the current challenges one is faced to reach ultra-small unimolecular soft nano-objects endowed with useful, autonomous and smart functions.

The Polymers & Soft Matter Group at CFM has contributed with 3 Chapters to this book. Angel Moreno and Federica Loverso have provided with a Chapter about “Computer Simulations of Single-Chain Nanoparticles”. Juan Colmenero and Arantxa Arbe have contributed with a Chapter entitled “Structure and Dynamics of Systems Based on Single-Chain Polymer Nanoparticles Investigated by Scattering Techniques”. Finally, a Chapter about “Applications of Single-Chain Polymers Nanoparticles” was written by Jon Rubio, Edurne Gonzalez and José A. Pomposo.