Surface water retardation around single-chain polymeric nanoparticles: critical for catalytic function?

Patrick J M Stals; Chi-Yuan Cheng; Lotte van Beek; Annelies C Wauters; Anja R A Palmans; Songi Han; E W Meijer

doi:10.1039/c5sc02319j

Surface water retardation around single-chain polymeric nanoparticles: critical for catalytic function?

Chem Sci. 2016 Mar 1;7(3):2011-2015. doi: 10.1039/c5sc02319j. Epub 2015 Dec 8.

Authors

Patrick J M Stals^{1

2

3}, Chi-Yuan Cheng⁴, Lotte van Beek^{1

4}, Annelies C Wauters^{1

4}, Anja R A Palmans^{1

2}, Songi Han^{4

5}, E W Meijer^{1

2}

Affiliations

¹ Laboratory of Macromolecular and Organic Chemistry , Eindhoven University of Technology , P.O. Box 513 , NL 5600 MB Eindhoven , The Netherlands . Email: e.w.meijer@tue.nl.
² Institute for Complex Molecular Systems , Eindhoven University of Technology , P.O. Box 513 , NL 5600 MB Eindhoven , The Netherlands.
³ DSM Coating Resins , Sluisweg 12 , 5145 PE Waalwijk , The Netherlands.
⁴ Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry , University of California , Santa Barbara , CA 93106 , USA . Email: songi@chem.ucsb.edu.
⁵ Materials Research Laboratory , University of California , Santa Barbara , California 93106 , USA.

Abstract

A library of water-soluble dynamic single-chain polymeric nanoparticles (SCPN) was prepared using a controlled radical polymerisation technique followed by the introduction of functional groups, including probes at targeted positions. The combined tools of electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) and Overhauser dynamic nuclear polarization (ODNP) reveal that these SCPNs have structural and surface hydration properties resembling that of enzymes.