State Key Laboratory of Supramolecular Structure and Materials, College of Chemistry, Jilin University, 2699 Jiefang Road, Changchun, 130012, China.
Institute of Theoretical Chemistry, College of Chemistry, Jilin University, 2519 Jiefang Road, Changchun, 130021, China.
Macromol Rapid Commun. 2024 Jul;45(14):e2400087. doi: 10.1002/marc.202400087. Epub 2024 May 11.
The collapse or folding of an individual polymer chain into a nanoscale particle gives rise to single-chain nanoparticles (SCNPs), which share a soft nature with biological protein particles. The precise control of their properties, including morphology, internal structure, size, and deformability, are a long-standing and challenging pursuit. Herein, a new strategy based on amphiphilic alternating copolymers for producing SCNPs with ultrasmall size and uniform structure is presented. SCNPs are obtained by folding the designed alternating copolymer in N,N-dimethylformamide (DMF) and fixing it through a photocatalyzed cycloaddition reaction of anthracene units. Molecular dynamics simulation confirms the solvophilic outer corona and solvophobic inner core structure of SCNPs. Furthermore, by adjusting the length of PEG units, precise control over the mean size of SCNPs is achieved within the range of 2.8 to 3.9 nm. These findings highlight a new synthetic strategy that enables enhanced control over morphology and internal structure while achieving ultrasmall and uniform size for SCNPs.
单个聚合物链折叠成纳米级颗粒会产生单链纳米颗粒（SCNPs），它们具有与生物蛋白质颗粒相似的柔软性质。长期以来，人们一直致力于精确控制 SCNPs 的性质，包括形态、内部结构、尺寸和可变形性等，但这是一项极具挑战性的任务。在此，我们提出了一种基于两亲性交替共聚物的新策略，用于制备具有超小尺寸和均匀结构的 SCNPs。SCNPs 是通过在 N,N-二甲基甲酰胺（DMF）中折叠设计的交替共聚物，并通过蒽单元的光催化环加成反应固定而得到的。分子动力学模拟证实了 SCNPs 的亲溶剂外部冠和疏溶剂内部核结构。此外，通过调整 PEG 单元的长度，可以在 2.8 到 3.9nm 的范围内精确控制 SCNPs 的平均尺寸。这些发现突出了一种新的合成策略，使人们能够更好地控制 SCNPs 的形态和内部结构，同时实现超小和均匀的尺寸。
