Boronic acid-containing polymeric nanomaterials via polymerization induced self-assembly as fructose sensor

Abstract

Owing to the reversible binding to diols, investigation of a simple and scalable strategy for the building of boronic acid-containing materials for fructose sensor is highly desirable but still challenging. Here, polymerization induced self-assembly is introduced to synthesis of core-shell spherical nanomaterials with boronic acid-rich shell in one-pot. Poly(4-vinylphenylboronic acid) 39 - b -polystyrene 242 (PVPBA 39 - b -PS 242 ) nanospheres with the diameter of 135 nm and PVPBA 230 - b -PS 1275 nanospheres with the diameter of 527 nm are prepared by PISA of styrene with PVPBA as chain transfer agent in methanol/H 2 O. The sensing applications of these two nanospheres are investigated. The fluorescence detection of 8-hydroxyquinoline by PVPBA 39 - b -PS 242 nanospheres is realized with high sensitivity at the ppm level, which is more sensitive than PVPBA 39 chain. PVPBA- b -PS nanospheres/alizarin red S complex and PVPBA- b -PS nanospheres/quercetin complex are built as a specific and sensitive fluorescence probe for fructose. The detection limit (LOD) of PVPBA- b -PS/ARS complex achieves 42.6 nM, while the LOD of PVPBA-b-PS/QC achieves 1.83 nM. • Nanospheres with boronic acid-rich shell are synthesized by PISA and designed as sensors for detection of fructose. • Via the evaluation by 8-hydroxyquinoline, these core-shell nanoshperes show higher sensitivity than PVPBA chains. • The detection limit of PVPBA-b-PS/ARS complex achieves 42.6 nM for fructose, while that of PVPBA-b-PS/QC achieves 1.83 nM.