Asymmetric modification of cellulose nanocrystals with PAMAM dendrimers for the preparation of pH-responsive hairy surfaces

Maud Chemin; Céline Moreau; Bernard Cathala; Ana Villares

doi:10.1016/j.carbpol.2020.116779

Asymmetric modification of cellulose nanocrystals with PAMAM dendrimers for the preparation of pH-responsive hairy surfaces

Carbohydr Polym. 2020 Dec 1:249:116779. doi: 10.1016/j.carbpol.2020.116779. Epub 2020 Jul 30.

Authors

Maud Chemin¹, Céline Moreau², Bernard Cathala³, Ana Villares⁴

Affiliations

¹ INRAE, UR1268 BIA, F-44316, Nantes, France. Electronic address: maud.chemin@inrae.fr.
² INRAE, UR1268 BIA, F-44316, Nantes, France. Electronic address: celine.moreau@inrae.fr.
³ INRAE, UR1268 BIA, F-44316, Nantes, France. Electronic address: bernard.cathala@inrae.fr.
⁴ INRAE, UR1268 BIA, F-44316, Nantes, France. Electronic address: ana.villares@inrae.fr.

PMID: 32933703
DOI: 10.1016/j.carbpol.2020.116779

Abstract

In this work, we present a straightforward method to attach a globular dendrimer at the reducing end of cellulose nanocrystals obtained from tunicates (t-CNC). We investigated the first four generations of poly(amidoamine) dendrimers (PAMAMs G0 to G3) to obtain hybrid t-CNCs. The aggregation behavior of hybrid t-CNCs was studied by dynamic light scattering (DLS) and scanning transmission electron microscopy (STEM); and interactions of these asymmetric nanoparticles with gold surface were elucidated using quartz crystal microbalance with dissipation (QCM-D) and surface plasmon resonance (SPR). Hybrid t-CNCs formed hairy layers onto gold surface combining the properties of rigid rod-like nanocrystals with globular and flexible PAMAM dendrimers. Moreover, the presence of amino groups provided pH-responsive properties to hybrid t-CNCs, and QCM-D results revealed reversible swelling/deswelling behavior. Thereby, we achieved to synthesize tree-shaped functional bio-based materials that adsorbed on gold and formed pH-responsive hairy surfaces.

Keywords: Gold adsorption; PAMAM dendrimers; Quartz crystal microbalance with dissipation (QCM-D); Reducing end functionalization; Surface plasmon resonance (SPR); Tunable swelling; Tunicate cellulose nanocrystals; pH-responsive layer.