Reactive oxygen species-responsive vesicle formed by selenium-containing cationic surfactant and SDS

Abstract

Reactive oxygen species (ROS)-responsive soft materials have attracted considerable concerns over the last decades. In this work, a ROS-responsive vesicle was developed by a simple co-assembly strategy, in which the selenium-containing ionic liquid surfactant, benzylselenide-1-undecyl methylpyrrolidinium bromide (BSeMPB), was used as a ROS-responsive molecule, in combination with the commercially available sodium dodecylsulfate (SDS). With the addition of H2O2, or by prolonging the time at 1.0 eq H2O2 with respect to BSeMPB, the vesicles were initially shown to gradually grow. This growth was then followed by a sudden collapse when reaching the concentration of 0.6 eq H2O2 with respect to BSeMPB, or when the equilibrium time was 90 min after the addition of 1.0 eq H2O2. In both cases, this phenomenon was due to the ROS-induced molecular transition from selenide to selenoxide, leading to a transition from vesicle to micelle in microstructure. Such a transition was not only dependent on the ROS concentration, but also on the time, making these nanocarriers ideal candidates for drug delivery applications.