Light-Switchable Nanoparticles Based on Amphiphilic Diblock, Triblock and Heterograft Polyoxazoline

A Korchia (1) , C Bouilhac (1) , Anais Aubert (1) , J.-J Robin (1) , V Lapinte (1)

1 ICGM - Institut Charles Gerhardt Montpellier - Institut de Chimie Moléculaire et des Matériaux de Montpellier

Photo-active nanoparticles (NPD, NPT, NPH) were elaborated in water from amphiphilic diblock (D), triblock (T) and heterograft (H) copolymers based on a chromatic unit, coumarin, linked to an alkyl chain and a hydrophilic polyoxazoline chain. Under UV-exposure, for graft copolymers, the coumarin moieties crosslink the nanoparticle core (NPHx) while a simple dimerization chain by chain happens with linear diblock and triblock copolymers (NPDx and NPT). The self-assembly of these copolymers was examined as well as the UV-activity and UV-reversibility of the corresponding NPs by UV spectroscopy. Their stability under light exposure and temperature was also monitored by dynamic light scattering (DLS). Finally, the loading of a lipophilic fluorescent probe (Nile Red) into the NP core was evaluated by fluorescence emission. All these data illustrate the tunable size, UV-activity, stability and loading efficiency of the NPs by the starting macromolecular architecture of the amphiphilic copolymers. Triblock copolymers seem to be a promising tool for switchable NPs characterized by two opposite states: NPs with and without photo-dimerized core alternatively.

Mots clés: polyoxazoline; amphiphilic; nanoparticles

Domaines: Polymères

A Korchia, C Bouilhac, Anais Aubert, J.-J Robin, V Lapinte. Light-Switchable Nanoparticles Based on Amphiphilic Diblock, Triblock and Heterograft Polyoxazoline. RSC Advances, 2017, 7, pp.42690-42698. ⟨10.1039/C7RA07094B⟩. ⟨hal-01581441⟩