Chitosan-graft-poly(methyl methacrylate) amphiphilic nanoparticles: Self-association and physicochemical characterization

Inbar Schlachet; Jiří Trousil; Dmytro Rak; Kenneth D Knudsen; Ewa Pavlova; Bo Nyström; Alejandro Sosnik

doi:10.1016/j.carbpol.2019.02.022

Chitosan-graft-poly(methyl methacrylate) amphiphilic nanoparticles: Self-association and physicochemical characterization

Carbohydr Polym. 2019 May 15:212:412-420. doi: 10.1016/j.carbpol.2019.02.022. Epub 2019 Feb 16.

Authors

Inbar Schlachet¹, Jiří Trousil², Dmytro Rak³, Kenneth D Knudsen⁴, Ewa Pavlova⁵, Bo Nyström⁶, Alejandro Sosnik⁷

Affiliations

¹ Laboratory of Pharmaceutical Nanomaterials Science, Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, 320003 Haifa, Israel.
² Institute of Macromolecular Chemistry, Czech Academy of Sciences, Heyrovského náměstí 2, 162 06 Prague 6, Czechia; Department of Analytical Chemistry, Charles University, Faculty of Science, Hlavova 8, 128 43 Prague 2, Czechia.
³ Institute of Experimental Physics, Slovak Academy of Sciences, Watsonova 47, 040 01 Košice, Slovakia.
⁴ Department of Physics, Institute for Energy Technology, P. O. Box 40, N-2027 Kjeller, Norway.
⁵ Institute of Macromolecular Chemistry, Czech Academy of Sciences, Heyrovského náměstí 2, 162 06 Prague 6, Czechia.
⁶ Department of Chemistry, University of Oslo, P.O. Box 1033, Blindern, N-0315 Oslo, Norway.
⁷ Laboratory of Pharmaceutical Nanomaterials Science, Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, 320003 Haifa, Israel. Electronic address: sosnik@technion.ac.il.

PMID: 30832875
DOI: 10.1016/j.carbpol.2019.02.022

Abstract

In this work, we synthesized and characterized the self-assembly behavior of a chitosan-poly(methyl methacrylate) graft copolymer and the properties of the formed nanoparticles by static and dynamic light scattering, small-angle neutron scattering, and transmission electron microscopy. Overall, our results indicate that the hydrophobization of the chitosan side-chain with PMMA leads to a complex array of small unimolecular and/or small-aggregation number "building blocks" that further self-assemble into larger amphiphilic nanoparticles.

Keywords: Amphiphilic polymeric nanoparticles; Chitosan-graft-poly(methyl methacrylate) copolymers; Self-assembly; Small-angle neutron scattering (SANS); Static light scattering (SLS) and dynamic light scattering (DLS).