Semiconductive Materials with Tunable Electrical Resistance and Surface Polarity Obtained by Asymmetric Functionalization of Janus Nanoparticles

Janus nanoparticles (JNPs) can offer significant potential for synthesis of multifunctional materials, due to their inherent property contrast between the lobes. Asymmetric surface chemical modifications on JNPs can be performed such that each lobe can carry different surface and/or bulk-like properties, which could be combined in surprising ways. In this work, it is shown that snowman-type polymeric JNPs can be used to make conductive materials with tunable resistance and surface polarity. By changing the relative size between a conductive and an electrically insulating lobe, the bulk powder conductivity within a series of JNPs by a factor of 10 without changing the intrinsic conductivity of the polymer can be tuned. In the same time, the surface polarity of the powder material decreased by a factor of 5. The possibility to synthesize multifunctional materials from JNPs building blocks that enable the coupling of a bulk-like property with a surface functionality is therefore demonstrated.