Zwitterionic Gel Coating Endows Gold Nanoparticles with Ultrastability

• DOI: 10.1021/acs.langmuir.8b01600
• Publication Date: 2018-07-30T05:50:27Z
• Authors: Wenchen Li; Kuanwu Chu; Lingyun Liu
• Keywords: Methacrylamide; Surface Modification

Colloidal stability of gold nanoparticles (GNPs) is great importance for their applications. Although a number ligands have been developed to protect GNPs, irreversible aggregation still happens under some particular conditions. Herein, we report zwitterionic encapsulation strategy endow GNPs with ultrastability. Each single GNP coated cross-linked poly(ornithine methacrylamide) hydrogel thin-layer, which prevents particle extremely harsh conditions, including lyophilization, strong acid solution, saturated salt and concentrated alkali solution. In addition, the gel layer resists protein adsorption in biological milieu, keeping stable full human blood serum. Furthermore, amino-acid-derived polymer provides numerous conjugation sites on-demand biomolecular functionalization. With all these merits, hold potential many applications such as sensing theragnostics.