Milani, A.H., Saunders, J.M., Nguyen, N.T. et al. (6 more authors) (2017) Synthesis of polyacid nanogels: pH-responsive sub-100 nm particles for functionalisation and fluorescent hydrogel assembly. Soft Matter, 13 (8). pp. 1554-1560. ISSN 1744-683X
Abstract
Nanogels are crosslinked polymer particles with a swollen size between 1 and 100 nm. They are of major interest for advanced surface coatings, drug delivery, diagnostics and biomaterials. Synthesising polyacid nanogels that show triggered swelling using a scalable approach is a key objective of polymer colloid chemistry. Inspired by the ability of polar surfaces to enhance nanoparticle stabilisation, we report the first examples of pH-responsive polyacid nanogels containing high -COOH contents prepared by a simple, scalable, aqueous method. To demonstrate their functionalisation potential, glycidyl methacrylate was reacted with the -COOH chemical handles and the nanogels were converted to macro-crosslinkers. The concentrated (functionalised) nanogel dispersions retained their pH-responsiveness, were shear-thinning and formed physical gels at pH 7.4. The nanogels were covalently interlinked via free-radical coupling at 37 °C to form transparent, ductile, hydrogels. Mixing of the functionalised nanogels with polymer dots enabled covalent assembly of fluorescent hydrogels.
Metadata
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © 2017 Royal Society of Chemistry. This is an author produced version of a paper subsequently published in Soft Matter. Uploaded in accordance with the publisher's self-archiving policy. | ||||
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Institution: | The University of Sheffield | ||||
Academic Units: | The University of Sheffield > Faculty of Science (Sheffield) > Department of Chemistry (Sheffield) | ||||
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Depositing User: | Symplectic Sheffield | ||||
Date Deposited: | 20 Apr 2017 10:24 | ||||
Last Modified: | 25 Jan 2018 01:38 | ||||
Published Version: | https://doi.org/10.1039/c6sm02713j | ||||
Status: | Published | ||||
Publisher: | Royal Society of Chemistry | ||||
Refereed: | Yes | ||||
Identification Number: | https://doi.org/10.1039/c6sm02713j | ||||
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