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Alkalinity triggered the degradation of polydopamine nanoparticles

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Abstract

Polydopamine (PDA) has been found to be as functional materials in a wide range of applications. However, the degradation behavior and mechanism of PDA are still in debate. For well understanding the degradation, PDA nanoparticles (PDA NPs) were prepared by oxidation and self-polymerization of dopamine and employed to study the degradation properties. We systematically studied the degradation of PDA NPs by adjusting the pH value, temperature and alkali strength of the system. PDA NPs were more prone to degrade under alkaline conditions above pH 11.0, and the stronger the alkalinity (pH 13.0) induced the faster the degradation rate. The analysis results for the entire degradation process showed that the size of the PDA NPs firstly decreased and then the morphology of PDA NPs changed from spheres to nanosheets with degradation time. After 120 h of degradation, PDA was completely degraded into monomers and oligomers with three or four repeat units that can be soluble in water. Moreover, PDA showed good biocompatibility. This study would give a strong evidence to confirm the degradation of PDA and help for designing the new PDA materials in biomedical and environmental fields.

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Acknowledgements

This study was supported by the Natural Science Foundation of Jiangsu Province (Grants No BK20181349), the Key Laboratory of Synthetic and Biological Colloids, Ministry of Education, Jiangnan University (JDSJ2018-09) and MOE & SAFEA for the 111 Project (B13025).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. The Key Laboratory of Synthetic and Biological Colloids, Ministry of Education, School of Chemical and Material Engineering, Jiangnan University, Wuxi, China

    Xi Chen, Wendi Yang, Jingjing Zhang, Li Zhang & Dongjian Shi

  2. Graduate School of Pure and Applied Sciences, University of Tsukuba, 1-1-1 Tennodai, Tsukuba, Ibaraki, 305-8577, Japan

    Xi Chen

  3. Beijing Key Laboratory of Bioprocess, Beijing University of Chemical Technology, North Third Ring Road 15, Chaoyang District, Beijing, 100029, China

    Heyun Shen

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  1. Xi Chen
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Correspondence to Dongjian Shi.

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Chen, X., Yang, W., Zhang, J. et al. Alkalinity triggered the degradation of polydopamine nanoparticles. Polym. Bull. 78, 4439–4452 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00289-020-03312-2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00289-020-03312-2

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