Host-guest complexation modulated aqueous polymerization-induced self-assembly for monodisperse hierarchical nanoflowers.

This work presents a one-step synthesis of monodisperse nanoflowers by aqueous polymerization-induced self-assembly (PISA), modulated by host-guest interactions. Owing to the low monomer swelling of nanoparticles restricted by host-guest complexation, hierarchical surficial micellar structures were generated at the outer surface of the vesicles, forming fractal nanoflowers with a diameter polydispersity as low as 1.01. Our method allows the straightforward synthesis of monodisperse hierarchical nanoparticles for a wide range of applications.