Preparation of gold nanoparticles on poly(methyl methacrylate) nanospheres with surface-grafted poly(allylamine)

A facile method for in situ anchoring of gold nanoparticles onto the surface of polymer nanospheres was successfully developed in this study. As polymer nanospheres, amphiphilic poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA)/poly(allylamine) (PAA) nanospheres were prepared by graft copolymerization of methyl methacrylate from PAA. The gold nanoparticles anchored were spherically symmetric and the average sizes were ∼12 nm for all samples. It was found that surface-grafted PAA effectively anchored and stabilized gold nanoparticles for a long period of time.