Langmuir. 2019 Jun 18;35(24):7929-7936. doi: 10.1021/acs.langmuir.9b00676. Epub 2019 May 29.
An oft-desired feature of a responsive nanomaterial is that it should undergo disassembly or morphological change upon application of a specific stimulus. The extent of response has been found to depend on factors such as the nature and the number of responsive functionalities incorporated into these particles. In this work, the length of oligoethylene glycol (OEG) side chains associated with the polymers has been shown to greatly influence the responsive behavior of polymeric nanoparticles. The integrity of these OEG-based polymeric assemblies was found to depend not only on the chemical cross-links but also on the physical cross-links in these aggregates in cases where the polymer chains bear long OEG side chains. The physical cross-linking in longer OEG side chain containing polymeric nanogels is present in the form of crystalline domains. Our results here highlight that these ethylene glycol-based hydrophilic units are not to be ignored as spectator units with water-solubilization characteristics but must be analyzed in the context of assembly stabilization and triggerability with the targeted stimulus.
响应性纳米材料的一个常见要求是，在施加特定刺激时，它应该进行拆卸或形态变化。已经发现，响应的程度取决于诸如结合到这些颗粒中的响应性功能的性质和数量等因素。在这项工作中，与聚合物相关联的低聚乙二醇（OEG）侧链的长度已被证明极大地影响了聚合物纳米颗粒的响应行为。这些基于 OEG 的聚合物组装体的完整性不仅取决于化学交联，而且还取决于聚合物链带有长 OEG 侧链的情况下这些聚集体中的物理交联。在具有长 OEG 侧链的聚合物纳米凝胶中存在物理交联，其形式为结晶域。我们在这里的结果强调，这些基于乙二醇的亲水性单元不能被忽略为具有水溶特性的旁观者单元，而必须根据组装体稳定性和与目标刺激的触发能力进行分析。
