English
Hybrid organic−inorganic nanostructures offersignificant potential for developing advanced functional materialswith numerous technological applications. However, the fabrica-tion process is often tedious and time-consuming. This studypresents a facile method for fabricating block copolymer-basedphotonic microspheres incorporating plasmonic gold nanopar-ticles. Specifically, the confined self-assembly of poly(styrene)-b-poly(2-vinylpyridine) in emulsion droplets allows the formation ofspherical, noniridescent, concentric lamellar structures, i.e., onion-like particles that are subsequently infiltrated with gold salt. Usingethanol as a preferential solvent allows the loading of metal ionsexclusively into the poly(2-vinylpyridine) domains, which aresubsequently reduced, leading to the in situ, spatially controlled formation of gold nanoparticles. The hybrid structures exhibit a well-defined photonic bandgap and plasmonic resonance at low gold concentrations. These results demonstrate the feasibility offabricating optically active photonic structures comprising metal nanoparticles in a block copolymer array via a simple two-stepfabrication process.