Generalized approach to the synthesis of reversible concentric and eccentric polymer-coated nanostructures.

A very facile, general, and reproducible method is developed for the controlled synthesis of discrete and monodisperse concentric and eccentric poly(acrylic acid) (PAA)-coated nanostructures in a large-scale, independent of their size, geometry, or composition. Interestingly, the reversible structural transformation between concentricity and eccentricity can be easily achieved, which is determined by the change in interfacial energy of the synthetic system.