Capturing Conformational Transitions of Fluorescently-Coupled Polyelectrolyte Brushes with High Spatiotemporal Resolution.

ABSTRACT: Polyelectrolyte brushes (PEBs) undergo conformational transitions due to changes in pH and/or ionic strength, which is leveraged as smart surfaces and on-demand drug-release systems. However, probing conformational transitions of functional PEBs has remained challenging due to low spatiotemporal resolution of characterization methods. Herein, fluorescently-coupled PEBs are devised that give rise to Förster Resonance Energy Transfer (FRET) intrinsically coupled to conformational transitions of chains. Polyelectrolyte poly(2-(dimethylamino)ethyl methacrylate) brushes are grown on silica surfaces via a grafting-from approach, producing nanoscale brushes ≈60 nm in solvated height. The study chose to investigate pH as astimulus, at constant ionic strength, using pH-insensitive fluorophores coup

SUBMITTER: Yadav J 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11855223 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature