Intelligent hydrophilic nanoparticles fabricated via alkaline hydrolysis of crosslinked polyacrylonitrile nanoparticles

Research Paper
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Abstract

Crosslinked polyacrylonitrile (PAN) nanolatex, with an average hydrodynamic diameter of 84 nm and a polydispersity index of 0.06, was successfully synthesized at a high monomer concentration and low surfactant content via a modified emulsion polymerization. Three measurements were adopted to control the nucleation and growth processes. Taking advantage of the chemical activity of nitrile groups, intelligent hydrophilic polymeric nanoparticles were fabricated via simple alkaline hydrolysis treatment of the crosslinked PAN nanolatex. Dynamic light scattering, electrophoretic light scattering, FT-IR spectroscopy, elemental analysis, and TEM observations were used to monitor the changes in the composition, structure, and morphology of the nanoparticles during the hydrolysis process. The sizes, chemical composition, morphology, and pH-responsive behavior of the intelligent hydrophilic nanoparticles could be adjusted by simply changing the hydrolysis time. As the hydrolysis was prolonged, the following nanoparticles could be obtained, crosslinked PAN nanoparticles with hydrophilic surfaces, amphiphilic nanoparticles with a hydrophobic PAN core and a hydrophilic polymeric shell composed of acrylamide and acrylic acid units, or carboxylic polyacrylamide nanoparticles. These modified nanoparticles all display good hydrophilicity, good biocompatibility, pH-sensitivity, as well as carboxyl functional groups, and thus are ideal candidates for various biomedical applications.

Keywords

Emulsion polymerization Alkaline hydrolysis Polyacrylonitrile Intelligent polymeric nanoparticles 
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Notes

Acknowledgments

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NNSFC No. 21074020) and the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (12D10607).

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Copyright information

© Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht 2013

Authors and Affiliations

  1. 1.State Key Laboratory for Modification of Chemical Fibers and Polymer Materials, College of Material Science and Engineering, Chemical Fibers Research InstituteDonghua UniversityShanghaiPeople’s Republic of China

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