TY - JOUR
T1 - Adsorption and Denaturation of Structured Polymeric Nanoparticles at an Interface
AU - Tian, Chang
AU - Feng, Jie
AU - Cho, H. Jeremy
AU - Datta, Sujit S.
AU - Prud'Homme, Robert K.
N1 - Funding Information:
We would like to thank Princeton SEAS support from the Blaire/Pyne fund, and NSF for CBET 1605816. We also thank Johnson & Johnson for providing us the access of the maximum bubble pressure tensiometer (BP100).
PY - 2018/8/8
Y1 - 2018/8/8
N2 - Nanoparticles (NPs) have been widely applied in fields as diverse as energy conversion, photovoltaics, environment remediation, and human health. However, the adsorption and trapping of NPs interfaces is still poorly understood, and few studies have characterized the kinetics quantitatively. In many applications, such as drug delivery, understanding NP interactions at an interface is essential to determine and control adsorption onto targeted areas. Therapeutic NPs are especially interesting because their structures involve somewhat hydrophilic surface coronas, to prevent protein adsorption, and much more hydrophobic core phases. We initiated this study after observing aggregates of nanoparticles in dispersions where there had been exposure of the dispersion to air interfaces. Here, we investigate the evolution of NP attachment and structural evolution at the air-liquid interface over time scales from 100 ms to 10s of seconds. We document three distinct stages in NP adsorption. In addition to an early stage of free diffusion and a later one with steric adsorption barriers, we find a hitherto unrealized region where the interfacial energy changes due to surface "denaturation" or restructuring of the NPs at the interface. We adopt a quantitative model to calculate the diffusion coefficient, adsorption rate and barrier, and extent of NP hydrophobic core exposure at different stages. Our results deepen the fundamental understanding of the adsorption of structured NPs at an interface.
AB - Nanoparticles (NPs) have been widely applied in fields as diverse as energy conversion, photovoltaics, environment remediation, and human health. However, the adsorption and trapping of NPs interfaces is still poorly understood, and few studies have characterized the kinetics quantitatively. In many applications, such as drug delivery, understanding NP interactions at an interface is essential to determine and control adsorption onto targeted areas. Therapeutic NPs are especially interesting because their structures involve somewhat hydrophilic surface coronas, to prevent protein adsorption, and much more hydrophobic core phases. We initiated this study after observing aggregates of nanoparticles in dispersions where there had been exposure of the dispersion to air interfaces. Here, we investigate the evolution of NP attachment and structural evolution at the air-liquid interface over time scales from 100 ms to 10s of seconds. We document three distinct stages in NP adsorption. In addition to an early stage of free diffusion and a later one with steric adsorption barriers, we find a hitherto unrealized region where the interfacial energy changes due to surface "denaturation" or restructuring of the NPs at the interface. We adopt a quantitative model to calculate the diffusion coefficient, adsorption rate and barrier, and extent of NP hydrophobic core exposure at different stages. Our results deepen the fundamental understanding of the adsorption of structured NPs at an interface.
KW - Nanoparticle
KW - block copolymer
KW - denature
KW - dynamic surface tension
KW - interface
KW - maximum bubble pressure
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U2 - 10.1021/acs.nanolett.8b01434
DO - 10.1021/acs.nanolett.8b01434
M3 - Article
C2 - 29975545
AN - SCOPUS:85049745164
SN - 1530-6984
VL - 18
SP - 4854
EP - 4860
JO - Nano Letters
JF - Nano Letters
IS - 8
ER -