Microfluidic Assisted Synthesis of Multipurpose Polymer Nanoassembly Particles for Fluorescence, LSPR, and SERS Activities.

Abstract

Potential biomedical applications such as controlled delivery with sustained drug release profile demand for multifunctional polymeric particles of precise chemical composition and with welldefined physicochemical properties. The real challenge is to obtain the reproducible and homogeneous nanoparticles in a minimum number of preparation steps. Here, single-step nanoarchitectures of soft surface layered copolymer nanoparticles with a regular tuning in the size via micro flow-through assisted synthesis are reported. Interfacial copolymerization induces the controlled compartmentalization where a hydrophobic core adopts spherical shape in order to minimize the surface energy and simultaneously shelter in the hydrophilic shelllike surface layer. Surface layer can swell in the aqueous medium and allow controlled entrapping of functional hydrophobic nanoparticles in the hydrophilic interior via electrostatic interaction which can be particularly interesting for combined fluorescence activity. Furthermore, the nanoarchitecture of size and concentration controlled polymer-metal nanoassembly particles can be implemented as an ideal surface-enhanced Raman scattering substrate for detection of the trace amounts of various analytes.