(45g) Facile Ways to Stabilize Nanoparticles Using Zwitterionic Polymers

Zwitterionic polymeric materials emerged as new generation of materials with excellent non-fouling properties. It has been demonstrated that their use as surface coatings can effectively resist binding from proteins, cells, and full blood. Nanoparticles coated with zwitterionic polymers exhibited long blood residency in vivo. These excellent properties were attributed to the super-hydrophilicity of these polymers providing strong hydration effects. However, this advantage disfavors their ease of use to modify hydrophobic objects, such as nanoparticles. Zwitterionic polymers are insoluble in most organic solvents where nanoparticles easily maintain their colloid stability, and no effective modification can happen in such solvents. In aqueous phase, zwitterionic polymers can be introduced to particle surface through various types of chemistry. But these syntheses are usually complex, and particles tend to aggregate during these processes. A novel facile method will be presented to effectively address the superhydrophilic zwitterionic polymer/ hydrophobic particle synthetic issue. We will demonstrate the resulting zwitterionic polymer protected nanoparticles achieve unprecedented stability comparing with established stabilizing technologies.