Controlling dispersion, stability and polymer content on PDEGMA-functionalized core-brush silica colloids

Abstract

Core-brush hybrid nanoparticles containing PEG surface functions are highly interesting as biologically inert and smart stimuli-responsive materials for future applications in biosensors, drug delivery, tissue engineering and optical systems. In this context, surface modification methodologies are critical to exert a thorough control of morphological and functional aspects such as grafting density, polymer conformation or colloidal dispersability. In this work, we present core-brush hybrid nanoparticles synthesis from SiO2 particles and an oligo(ethyleneglycol)-based polymer. Di(ethylene glycol) methyl ether methacrylate (DEGMA) was successfully grafted using the grafting-from approach. In particular, we compared DEGMA grafting on SiO2 particles using three pathways, where route 1 and 2 corresponds to a surface-initiated atom radical polymerization (SI-ATRP), while pathway 3 consists in a photo-grafting polymerization. The polymer density grafted on the SiO2 surface,

Surface-Initiated Atom Transfer Radical Polymerization for the Preparation of Well-Defined Organic–Inorganic Hybrid Nanomaterials

“…Undoubtedly, silica nanoparticles are the most common and most widely used nanoparticles modified via the SI-ATRP method with various monomers including methyl acrylate (MA) [65], methyl methacrylate (MMA) [66], 2-hydroxyethyl acrylate (HEA) [67], styrene [68,69], 2-(dimethylamino)ethyl methacrylate [70], γ-methacryloxypropyltrimethoxysilane (PMPTS) [71], ( N , N -dimethylaminoethyl methacrylate (DMAEMA) [72,73,74,75], poly(ethylene glycol) methacrylate [76,77], NIPAM [78,79,80,81], tert -butyl acrylate ( t BA) [35,82], di(ethylene glycol) methyl ether methacrylate (DEGMA) [83] and other monomers [54,80,84,85,86,87]. These hybrid nanomaterials combine the advantages of nanoparticles including its rigidity and stability and organic polymer layers characterized by flexibility, processability and functionality to enlarge the potential applications such nanohybrids.…”

“…Recently, Penelas et al have developed bioinert core-brush hybrid nanoparticles modified with thermosensitive DEGMA for future applications in biosensor, tissue engineering and optical system [83].…”

“…Then, PDEGMA brushes were grafted from previously modified nanoparticles SiO 2 -Br and SiO 2 -Cl. Moreover, photo-grafting is the third equally effective synthetic route for (SiO 2 -V)- g -PDEGMA NPs preparation [83].…”

“…Schematic illustration of surface-initiated ATRP of DEGMA on SiO 2 -Cl NPs. Reproduced with permission from reference [83]. VTES—vinyltriethoxysilane.…”

D-shaped plastic optical fibre aptasensor for fast thrombin detection in nanomolar range

“…PEG-SAMs have been demonstrated to be effective of limiting the deposition of interferents at the plasmonic interface and in avoiding the consequent changes in the refractive-index that impair the sensing performance 19 . PEG and PEG-mixed SAMs have been reported to enable the determination of the biological markers straight from complex matrixes, such as blood, plasma or serum 19–22 . Furthermore, PEG-mix SAMs have been exploited for their ability to work in aqueous conditions 23–27 , thus being ideal for protein biomarker determinations, such as the case of THR.…”