Gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) have a wide array of unique optical properties that make them desirable for use in many biological applications such as drug delivery, tumor imaging, and therapeutics. To allow for better control of how these particles interact within biological environments, chemical modifications of their surfaces through the use of polymer adsorption is typically performed. As a consequence, a wide array of applied research has been done on polyelectrolyte wrapping of AuNPs using a layer-by-layer (LbL) coating method. Previous research has extensively explored the various factors of this adsorption process for planar surfaces; however, for surfaces such as nanoparticles, which exhibit high curvature, the fundamental study of the bound polymers on the nanoparticle surface has not been critically explored. The goal of this research has been to quantify the wrapping of individual polymer units onto spherical nanoparticles with charged capping layers using different polymer species (polystyrene sulfonate, polyanethole sulfonate, and polyallylamine hydrochloride). Inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectrometry (ICP-OES) is used to quantify the numbers of polyelectrolyte chains that adsorb to the nanoparticle surface. Isothermal Titration Calorimetry (ITC) is also used to measure the thermodynamic properties of the surface interactions between the polyelectrolytes and nanoparticles. These numerical results are used to draw conclusions on the absorption and dynamics of the ion mediated polyelectrolyte adsorption onto the nanoparticle surface.<br/> <br/>

Quantification of polyelectrolyte adsorption to gold nanoparticle surfaces

253rd National Meeting (2017)

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