Issue 27, 2014

Multi-orthogonal folding of single polymer chains into soft nanoparticles

Abstract

Efficient folding of single polymer chains is a topic of great interest due, mainly, to the challenging possibility of mimicking and controlling the structure and functionality of natural biomacromolecules (e.g., enzymes, drug delivery vehicles, and catalysts) by means of artificial single chain nano-objects. By performing extensive molecular dynamics simulations we investigate the formation of soft nanoparticles by irreversible intramolecular cross-linking of polymer precursors of different lengths. In order to optimize the folding process and to obtain more compact structures we vary the number of chemical species among the linker groups (orthogonal chemistry) which selectively form the bonds. The use of orthogonal chemistry protocols, by increasing the number of different chemical species of the linkers, leads to nanoparticles that are systematically smaller and more spherical than their homofunctional counterparts. We characterize the conformational properties of the resulting nanoparticles. These are intrinsically polydisperse in size, with a significant fraction of sparse topologies. We discuss the relevance of our results for synthesis protocols in real systems.

Graphical abstract: Multi-orthogonal folding of single polymer chains into soft nanoparticles

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
27 Feb 2014
Accepted
31 Mar 2014
First published
02 Apr 2014

Soft Matter, 2014,10, 4813-4821

Author version available

Multi-orthogonal folding of single polymer chains into soft nanoparticles

F. Lo Verso, J. A. Pomposo, J. Colmenero and A. J. Moreno, Soft Matter, 2014, 10, 4813 DOI: 10.1039/C4SM00459K

To request permission to reproduce material from this article, please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

If you are an author contributing to an RSC publication, you do not need to request permission provided correct acknowledgement is given.

If you are the author of this article, you do not need to request permission to reproduce figures and diagrams provided correct acknowledgement is given. If you want to reproduce the whole article in a third-party publication (excluding your thesis/dissertation for which permission is not required) please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

Read more about how to correctly acknowledge RSC content.

Social activity

Spotlight

Advertisements