Measuring the grafting density of nanoparticles in solution by analytical ultracentrifugation and total organic carbon analysis.

ABSTRACT: Many of the solution phase properties of nanoparticles, such as their colloidal stability and hydrodynamic diameter, are governed by the number of stabilizing groups bound to the particle surface (i.e., grafting density). Here, we show how two techniques, analytical ultracentrifugation (AUC) and total organic carbon analysis (TOC), can be applied separately to the measurement of this parameter. AUC directly measures the density of nanoparticle-polymer conjugates while TOC provides the total carbon content of its aqueous dispersions. When these techniques are applied to model gold nanoparticles capped with thiolated poly(ethylene glycol), the measured grafting densities across a range of polymer chain lengths, polymer concentrations, and nanoparticle diameters agree to within 20%. Moreover,

SUBMITTER: Benoit DN 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4538977 | biostudies-literature | 2012 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature