Soft materials are ubiquitous in every aspect of our daily life. These materials composed of a wide range of subfields including surfactants, foams, emulsions, pastes, slurries, polymers, gels, and colloidal suspensions. In recent years, there has been a great interest focusing on the understanding of the macroscopic properties of various types of soft materials as a function of their microstructures. For example, the structure-property relationship of physically-associating triblock copolymer gels can be controlled by selecting different types of solvents and changing the temperature. In these systems, gelation occurs due to the significant changes in the solubility of one or more of the blocks with temperature compared to the other blocks. Therefore, changing the temperature can lead to the structural transitions and macroscopic properties. The other strategy that can be used to modify the macroscopic performance of polymer gels is through the incorporation of nanoparticles, such as graphene nanoplatelets and nanotubes. The addition of nanoparticles can also affect the mechanical properties of concentrated suspensions in which, understanding the structure/flow properties is vital for processing and manufacturing of a product. Despite significant advances in the field of soft materials, our understanding in linking the structure-property relationships of polymer gels and concentrated suspensions is incomplete. With this perspective, in this dissertation, shear-rheometry and scattering techniques were used to understand the structural changes of the self-assembled triblock copolymer gels over a wide length-scale and broad temperature-range. Graphene nanoplatelets have been incorporated into this system to investigate the self-assembly behavior and mechanical properties as a function of graphene concentration. On the other hand, in concentrated suspensions of functionalized nanoparticles in a low-molecular- weight polymeric media, the effect of nanoparticles on the rheological properties were investigated. The present work provides a better understanding of the nanoparticles’contributions on microstructure and mechanical behavior of soft materials.

Anisotropic plasmonic noble metallic nanoparticles (APMNs) have received enormous attention due to their distinct geometric features and fascinating physicochemical properties. Owing in large part to their tailored localized surface plasmon resonance (LSPR) and the intensive electromagnetic field at the sharp corners and edges, APMNs are exceptionally well suited for biomedical applications such as biosensing, bioimaging, diagnostics and therapeutics. Although a rich variety of surfactant-assisted colloidal routes have been developed to prepare well-defined APMNs, biomedical applications necessitate tedious and rigorous purification processes for the complete removal of toxic surfactants. In this dissertation, we aim to develop generic bioenabled green synthetic methodologies towards APMNs. By applying a series of thermodynamic, kinetic and seed quality control, a series of APMNs with varied morphologies such as branched nanostars and triangular nanoprisms have been successfully prepared. We first presented the preparation of gold nanostars (Au NSTs) through a two-step approach utilizing a common Good's buffer, HEPES, as a weak reducing agent. Single crystalline Au NSTs with tunable branches up to 30 nm in length were produced and the halide ions rather than the ionic strength played a significant roles on the length of the branches of Au NSTs. Then consensus sequence tetratricopetide repeat (CTPR) proteins with increasing number of repeats were used as model proteins to probe the effects of concentration as well as the protein shape on the morphology and resulting physicochemical properties of plasmonic gold nanoparticles. Since the underlying growth mechanism for the biomimetic synthesis of APMNs remains elusive and controversial, the other objective is to elucidate the molecular interactions between inorganic species and biopolymers during the course of NP evolution. Fluorescent quenching and 2D NMR experiments have confirmed the moderate binding affinity of CTPR to the Au(0) and Au(III). We observed that the initial complexation step between gold ions and CTPR3 is ionic strength dependent. Furthermore, we also found that NPs preferentially interact with the negatively charged face of CTPR3 as observed in 2D NMR. Knowledge of binding behavior between biospecies and metal ions/NPs will facilitate rational deign of proteins for biomimetic synthesis of metallic NPs. A modified seed-mediated synthetic strategy was also developed for the growth of silver nanoprisms with low shape polydispersity, narrow size distribution and tailored plasmonic absorbance. During the seed nucleation step, CTPR proteins are utilized as potent stabilizers to facilitate the formation of planar-twinned Ag seeds. Ag nanoprisms were produced in high yield in a growth solution containing ascorbic acid and CTPR-stabilized Ag seeds. From the time-course UV-Vis and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) studies, we postulate that the growth mechanism is the combination of facet selective lateral growth and thermodynamically driven Ostwald ripening. By incorporation of seeded growth and biomimetic synthesis, gold nanotriangles (Au NTs) with tunable edge length were synthesized via a green chemical route in the presence of the designed CTPR protein, halide anions (Br⁻) and CTPR-stabilized Ag seeds. The well-defined morphologies, tailored plasmonic absorbance from visible-light to the near infrared (NIR) region, colloidal stability and biocompatibility are attributed to the synergistic action of CTPR, halide ions, and CTPR-stabilized Ag seeds. We also ascertained that a vast array of biosustainable materials including negatively charged lignin and cellulose derivatives can serve as both a potent stabilizers and an efficient nanocrystal modifiers to regulate the growth of well-defined Ag nanoprisms using a one-pot or seeded growth strategy. The influential effects of reactants and additives including the concentration of sodium lignosulfonate, H2O2 and NaBH4 were studied in great detail. It implies that appropriate physicochemical properties rather than the specific binding sequence of biomaterials are critical for the shaped-controlled growth of Ag NTs and new synthetic paradigms could be proposed based on these findings. Last but not the least, we have demonstrated the resulting APMNs, particularly, Au NSTs and Ag NTs exhibit remarkable colloidal stability, enhanced SERS performance, making them promising materials for biosensing and photothermal therapy. Since the Ag nanoprisms are susceptible to morphological deformation in the presence of strong oxidant, they also hold great potential for the colorimetric sensing of oxidative metal cation species such as Fe3+, Cr3+, etc. / Ph. D.

Les travaux élaborés dans cette thèse ont pour objectif de caractériser les propriétés magnétiques et structurales de nanostructures magnétiques obtenues par une nouvelle méthode de synthèse mixte physique/chimique, dite croissance hybride. La première partie du travail réalisé consiste en l’élaboration de films minces métalliques sur substrats par pulvérisation cathodique. Sur ces films minces, la synthèse chimique par voie organométallique aboutit à des réseaux de nanofils de Co monocristallins hcp, ultra-denses, ou des films nanostructurés de Fe. Les observations MEB/MET et les mesures de diffraction de rayons X réalisées sur les substrats montrent le fort impact induit par la cristallinité de la couche mince sur la morphologie et la direction de croissance des nanostructures magnétiques.Les mesures magnétiques réalisées sur des réseaux de nanofils de Co montrent une forte anisotropie magnétique perpendiculaire au substrat. Cela est obtenu grâce à l’anisotropie magnétocristalline du Co hcp (avec l’axe c parallèle à l’axe du fil) qui s’ajoute à l’anisotropie de forme. L’aimantation thermiquement stable, semble suivre un régime de retournement cohérent, régime non observé dans les structures polycristallines. L’organisation de ces nanostructures, leur grande densité et la stabilité de leur aimantation font de ce réseau un bon candidat aux applications de médias d’enregistrement magnétique à forte densité. / The elaboration of this thesis aims to characterize the magnetic and structural properties of magnetic nanostructures obtained by a new mixed physical / chemical synthesis method, called hybrid growth. The first part of the work consists in the development of thin metal films on substrates by cathode sputtering. Furthermore, the chemical synthesis conducted by organometallic chemistry on those thin films, results in an array of ultra-dense Co monocristallins hcp nanowires, or nanostructured Fe films. Additionally, The SEM/TEM observations and the X-ray diffraction measurements conducted on the substrates and induced by the crystlalline structure of the thin film, show the high impact on the magnetic nanostructures morphology and growth direction.Moreover, the magnetic measurements executed on the Co nanowires array show a strong magnetic anisotropy perpendicular to the substrate. This observation is obtained due to the magnetocrystalline anisotropy acting along the nanowire axis (Co hcp structure with the c axis parallel to the nanowire axis) in the same direction of the nanowires shape anisotropy. The magnetization within these structures is thermally stable. It follows a coherent magnetization reversal mode that has not been observed in the polycrystalline structures up to now. Finally, the self-organization of the nanowires as well as their high density and stable magnetization nominate this system for their application in high density magnetic storage devices.