“Smart” nanoparticles: Preparation, characterization and applications

By M. Ballauff, Yan Lu. 2007

394 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Abstract We review recent work on the preparation, characterization and application of “smart” microgel particles. A general feature of all systems under consideration here is their ability to react to external stimuli as e.g. the pH or the temperature in the system. Special emphasis is laid on our recent research work on the thermosensitive core–shell microgel particles, which are composed of a PS core and a cross-linked poly(N-isopropylacrylamide) (PNIPA) shell. Work done on these core–shell systems is compared to developments on the investigations of similar systems. A novel synthesis method, namely photo-emulsion polymerization, has been described for the preparation of monodisperse, thermosensitive core–shell particles. Cryogenic transmission electron microscopy (cryo-TEM) has recently been employed to investigate the morphology and the volume transition of the core–shell type microgels. This method furnishes information about the thermosensitive particles that had not been available through other methods employed in previous investigations. Very recently, it has been shown that these core–shell microgels can be used as “nanoreactors” for the immobilization of metal nanoparticles. The metal nanocomposite particles show “smart” catalytic behaviour, inasmuch as the catalytic activity of nanoparticles can be switched on and off through the volume transition that takes place within the thermosensitive shell of the carrier system. We also discuss possible future applications of these systems.

Subfields: Condensed Matter Physics, Materials Chemistry, Molecular Medicine

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/3288edece0fff938da819ab2e6809ec55b34f8cc

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In Condensed Matter Physics

1. Xuanhe Zhao
2. Zhigang Suo

In Materials Chemistry

1. Zhigang Suo
2. Wei Hong
3. Xuanhe Zhao
4. Jian Zhu
5. Katia Bertoldi
6. Massimiliano Gei
7. Shengqiang Cai

In Molecular Medicine

1. Zhigang Suo
2. Xuanhe Zhao
3. Zishun Liu
4. T. Y. Ng
5. W. Toh
6. Shengqiang Cai
7. L. Anand
8. Shawn A. Chester

Citations in the corpus

• Large deformation and electrochemistry of polyelectrolyte gels (2010, background): “First, because a gel swells by imbibing solvent molecules, the time to equilibrate is short when the gel has a small size (Ballauff and Lu, 2007; Hirose et al., 1987; Nayak and Lyon, 2005; Pelton, 2000; Saunders and Vincent, 1999).”