Probing the thermoresponsive nature of poly(N-isopropylacrylamide) functionalsied silica nanoparticles using contrast variation
Smart nanoparticles are becoming increasingly more popular, as they allow the surface characteristics of nanoparticles to be manipulated to a specific job. Poly(N-isopropylacrylamide) (pNIPAM) is a well known thermoresponsive polymer which undergoes a coil to globule phase transition at 32 degrees C, becoming hydrophobic and aggregating. When this polymer is bound to the surface of nanoparticles, 2 effects are observed; a gradual decrease in particle size below 32 degrees C, followed by a sudden increase. Interestingly, the size remains very uniform both during and after the phase transition, suggesting a controlled aggregation, an effect not seen in the free polymer in solution. We hypothesize that the initial decrease is due to changes in the solvation shell (confirmed by looking at particle size in methanol and preliminary SANS data), but further temperatures are required to confirm this. Additionally, the apparent controlled aggregation is very interesting, as it shows the particle size can be easily manipulated which has applications in many fields, such as drug delivery. However further experiments are required to study this phenomenon, and determine the level of control.
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E.D.H.Mansfield; Michael T. Cook; GRILLO Isabelle; KHUTORYANSKIY Vitaliy and ROGERS Sarah. (2015). Probing the thermoresponsive nature of poly(N-isopropylacrylamide) functionalsied silica nanoparticles using contrast variation. Institut Laue-Langevin (ILL) doi:10.5291/ILL-DATA.9-12-422
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